Stirring suspense and an incredibly creepy location lose out to a routine story in Pupi Avati's return to the horror genre. Lei (Laura Morante) returns to her former residence of Davenport, Iowa after 15 years in a mental institution following her husband's suicide. She intends to fulfill their dream of opening an Italian restaurant and realtor Mueller (Burt Young) finds her a place called Snake's Hall out in the country. It is the ideal place in that it has lots of space, a fully furnished kitchen and low rent. Of course, it also has a dark history and the Lei can't decide if the voices she hears at night are from someone else in the house or if she is going crazy again.
This has a lot of things going for it, but ultimately fails when you figure out the plot about 30 minutes in. Sure, there might be an extra twist here and there, but you know the gist of it, especially with poorly delivered lines like, "The night of the murders there were no footprints in the snow leaving the house. What happened to the two girls who killed those people? IT IS LIKE THEY VANISHED!" Also, titling your movie the freakin' HIDEOUT might be a huge giveaway. Avati's set ups for how Lei gets info are astonishingly bad. For example, her big in on finding out about the house's history is almost randomly running over a young boy crossing the road whose mother just happens to be married to the son of the judge whose presided over the case of the murders in the house in the 1950s. The anti-climatic ending is a huge botch job too. And it is a shame because Avati captures Iowa in a unique way and builds the suspense perfectly. Random co-stars include Treat Williams (as Father Amy!?!), Yvonne Scio, Giovanni Lombardo Radice (as a wine expert with two scenes; you flew him over for that?), and Rita Tushingham (looking more and more like Anthony Perkins).
This has a lot of things going for it, but ultimately fails when you figure out the plot about 30 minutes in. Sure, there might be an extra twist here and there, but you know the gist of it, especially with poorly delivered lines like, "The night of the murders there were no footprints in the snow leaving the house. What happened to the two girls who killed those people? IT IS LIKE THEY VANISHED!" Also, titling your movie the freakin' HIDEOUT might be a huge giveaway. Avati's set ups for how Lei gets info are astonishingly bad. For example, her big in on finding out about the house's history is almost randomly running over a young boy crossing the road whose mother just happens to be married to the son of the judge whose presided over the case of the murders in the house in the 1950s. The anti-climatic ending is a huge botch job too. And it is a shame because Avati captures Iowa in a unique way and builds the suspense perfectly. Random co-stars include Treat Williams (as Father Amy!?!), Yvonne Scio, Giovanni Lombardo Radice (as a wine expert with two scenes; you flew him over for that?), and Rita Tushingham (looking more and more like Anthony Perkins).