Adapting his own novel of the same name, Italian filmmaker and genre giant Pupi Avati emerges with the oddest film of this year’s Glasgow FrightFest film festival… or, indeed, any film festival.
Set in the 1940s, this Gothic noir follows young writer Lui (Filippo Scotti) as he falls in love with US Army nurse Barbara (Mildred Gustafsson) following a brief encounter during the Italian Liberation. One year and a move to Iowa later, and he finds himself living next door to that same nurse, with whom he has developed quite the obsession. Learning that Barbara has disappeared, our writer’s fixation sends him down an entirely different path as he attempts to track down his lost love.
Shot entirely in black and white, The American Backyard is a striking return to genre filmmaking from a director who rose to prominence in the 1970s and ’80s with horror masterpieces The House With the Laughing Windows (1976) and Zeder (1983). As Lui scrabbles about in his neighbour’s garden in search of a disembodied voice, the director shows signs of his roots in creepy Italian giallo. For the rest of it, The American Backyard divides its time between courtroom drama, psychological thriller, and atmospheric mystery.
Scotti delivers a commendable performance as the eccentric young writer, giving the film a strong anchor amid its more expressionist flourishes. The presence of veteran British actor Rita Tushingham also gives flavour to this heady brew of deranged ideas, disturbing imagery (vagina in a jar, anyone?) and discomforting emotions. If it gets lost in the weeds partway through, The American Backyard finds its focus again during a powerful – if unsatisfactory – finale.
The American Backyard is a deeply strange late-career entry from a genre giant of old. Dark and unsettling in a way one can’t pin down, it’s brimming with a devious energy, barely buried beneath the surface of a deliberately composed period thriller.
THE AMERICAN BACKYARD premiered at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest Glasgow on March 8th, 2025.
