''Don't Look in the Attic'' ( it, La villa delle anime maledette–The Damned) is a 1981 Italian

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed and written by Carlo Ausino.

Production

''Don't Look in the Attic'' was directed by Carlo Ausino, a filmmaker who got his start in the film industry as an uncredited assistant on the set of '' The Organizer'' and made his debut as a director in ''

L'ora della pietà ''L'Ora'' (English: ''The Hour'') was a Sicilian daily newspaper published in Palermo. The paper was founded in 1900 and stopped being published in 1992. In the 1950s-1980s the paper was known for its investigative reporting about the Sicilian Maf ...

''. Ausino made a few attempts at

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

films in the 1970s until his film '' Double Game'' which was released in 1977. ''Don't Look in the Attic'' was filmed in 1980 when Ausino made a deal with the French film distribution company Felix Film to use some French actors in mid-1980. The film was written in a few weeks by Ausino with Annarita Grapputo in the lead, who had previously acted in ''Double Game''. Filming began in June 1980 under the title ''La stirpe dei dannati'' and was shot in four weeks in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. The film's score credited to

Stelvio Cipriani Stelvio Cipriani (20 August 1937 – 1 October 2018), also known as Viostel, was an Italian composer, mostly of motion picture soundtracks. Biography Though not raised with a strong musical upbringing, as a child Cipriani was fascinated by his ...

is compiled form a catalogue of his older work, including ''

Un'ombra nell'ombra "Un'ombra" ( en, Shadow) is a song by Italian singer Mina recorded in 1969 for her studio album '' ...bugiardo più che mai... più incosciente che mai...''. It was written by musician Roberto Soffici and lyricist Paolo Limiti. Released as a sing ...

'' .

Release

''Don't Look in the Attic'' had its premiere on September 30, 1981 in

as ''La villa delle anime maledette''. Wider distribution of the film in Italy was only available on 14 May 1982. In Italy, the film was released on home video by the GVR label. Outside of Italy the film was released as ''House of the Damned'' which was mistitled as ''House of the Danned'' in the titles and ''Don't Look in the Attic''.

Reception

In Italy, Leonardo Autera gave the film a negative review in ''

Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...

'', noting poor script, direction and photography. Autera continued that the story was "extremely deranged, developing despite any logic."

References

Footnotes

Sources

* *

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0082278 1981 horror films 1981 films Italian horror films Films shot in Italy Films scored by Stelvio Cipriani 1980s Italian films