Stream it now Phenomena 1985

 

Certainly one of the stranger films you'll see. Phenomena is enjoyable, but at times feels like a mismatch of ideas.

Dario Argento is offically a madman. He goes all-out nuts with Phenomena, unleashing his twisted imagination and creating one of the most wacky, bizarre horror movies ever made. The 'throw everything at the screen' tactic that Argento uses here does make Phenomena boldly unique and wildly entertaining, but also makes it really uneven. Some scenes strike exactly the right balance between loveable goofiness and unnervingly surreal horror, but others are just head-scratching.

However, despite its glaring flaws, I couldn't help but love Phenomena. The acting is unusually good for a movie of this type - a young Jennifer Connelly already proves herself to be a striking and appealing lead actress with endless potential. Donald Pleasance is just being Donald Pleasance, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. And no matter how uneven Phenomena may be at times, it all builds up to a gloriously insane finale. The last 25 minutes involve a lot of angry insects, one seriously fucked-up family, a revenge-crazed chimpanzee, and an excess of blood and maggots. Any movie with an ending so deliriously batshit crazy is pretty awesome in my book.

Dario Argento films I've seen:
1. Suspiria - 8.5
2. Tenebre - 8
3. Phenomena - 7.5
4. Opera - 6.5

While not as gory as Inferno, not as brutal as Suspiria, there's always one thing you can expect from Dario Argento and that's an atmosphere that cannot be duplicated by any other filmmaker.

Argento plays around with the concept of insect telepathy in a story that is seemingly original in it's execution. NOT only do you have Jennifer Conelly talking to bugs throughout the entire film but you have the subplot of a killer on the loose that seems to chop off the heads of their victims. It turns out that Jennifer Conelly teams up with an Etymologist (played by horror icon Donald Pleasance) and his monkey companion, to solve the case of this serial killer.

The storyline gets quite absurd, but there's one thing it wasn't short of and that was enjoyability. I enjoyed watching this film because there was so much fun stuff layered into the plot (including a vengeance seeking monkey) that you get lost in Jennifer Conelly's running from danger and forget certain elements, which leads to great suprises around the climax which will have you on the edge of your seat and then at the peak, Argento throws out the punchline.

Argento's camera work is always a main point of interest. You have the fly-cam, sleepwalker-cam, stalker-cam, and more POV shots then you can shake a severed hand at. Argento, as always, captures the sheer beauty of his heroines, as he picks the love of my life as the main character. :-) (*sigh* even at such a young age Jennifer Connely is unbelievably beautiful.)

Although it lacks the creepiness of some of Argento's previous work, there's still that sense of the macabre in a story that only Argento could have wrote and executed properly.

Phenomena is one of the most enjoyable horror movies I've seen. This time around director Dario Argento focuses on insects being the main force in finding the brutal killer. Jennifer Connelly who delivers convincing performance stars as the student who arrives at windy Pennsylvania. She has the special ability to communicate telepathically with insects. The only person who understands her and becomes a mentor of hers is Dr McGregor superbly portrayed by Donald Pleasence. Phenomena ranks among Argento's most original outings effectively blending gory detective story formula with supernatural thriller. The main adavantage of the movie is that it constantly manages to surprise. This quality is not only conditioned by Argento's trademark death scenes, but also truly unique sequences involving insects. The movie slowly, yet confidently builds to a freakout finale. The last 20 minutes or so deserve every praise due to their deranged intensity. Other than that, the plot contrivances so often applied in other Argento's movies are almost absent from Phenomena, which highlights the precise structure of the script. Overall, Phenomena is conceptually intriguing, yet relentlessly tense and frightening. It's a mandatory viewing for every horror fan. 9/10 (A-)

So I have just watched my third Dario Argento film, Phenomena. The first two being Suspiria and Tenebre. A few facets of Argento films are beginning to come clear to me. Argento the director towers over Argento the writer. Argento the director takes screenplays penned by Argento the writer that are full of plot holes, lack any character development, and have terribly goofy dialogue and turns them into damn near masterpieces. One has to prepare for his films, much like preparing for a David Lynch film to a lesser extent of course. Don't expect all the loose ends to tie up, don't expect what happens now to have a big influence on what happens later, do enjoy every scene for the beauty of the scene, do prepare for very stylistic kills, do prepare horror that borders on surreal.

Back to Phenomena. This film is fantastic. Argento takes a paranormal story of insects, serial killers, boarding schools, creepy scientists (played by Donald Pleasence of Halloween fame who has the niche character of the mostly-creepy-know-it-all-scientist all but written on his forehead now) and just goes nuts. Argento known for booming scores doesn't disappoint here. In fact, he mixes in some Iron Maiden and Motorhead for fucks sake, how awesome is that. There is plenty to love in this film even though at least 20 minutes could have been left on the cutting room floor. Oh yeah, Phenomena includes the best use of a monkey. I'm not a big fan of animals playing characters, but it really works here.

I suspect that if this film would have been my first taste of Argento, I would not be so kind, but now that I understand his pacing and story structure (or lack there of), I really am turning into a big fan. There's a comfort level with his films, not unlike the sitcom format. Although this sitcom involves pounding bass, severed heads, suspenseful murder sequences, an lotsa blood.

Enjoyable fluff from Argento, uplifted by the presence of both Jennifer Connolly and Donald Pleasence, who are both always well worth watching, albeit for different reasons. The plot flies completely out of the window in this one; by the end of the film you are still not really sure who the actual killer was, but I suppose it's the ride that you go on getting to the ending that counts. The final half an hour really picks the film up, and is about as weird as Argento gets, however the heavy metal soundtrack is simply distracting.

Dario Argento's work is a varied assortment of macabre and bizarre, but very few films of his get as unusual as Phenomena (AKA Creepers). It has an interesting collection of story quirks like sleepwalking, psychic connections with insects and even a knife wielding monkey. Bur the film ends up being one of the director's best, and strange, Giallo films he has ever done.

It was a great decision to have the main character of this film be a teenager. Giallo films tend to have adult characters, usually in a good profession (author, detective, artist...) but having it be a younger female in a boarding school made the movie a little creepier, and reminiscent of Argento's Suspiria. And the very young Jennifer Connelly (yes, that Jennifer Connelly!) is pretty good as Jennifer Corvino, a student of a Swiss boarding school who suffers from sleepwalking.

Phenomena is about a serial killer who is stalking and murdering various girls who attend the boarding school. One night during an attack of another student, Jennifer is sleepwalking and ends up in the home of Professor John McGregor (Donald Pleasence), who is in a wheelchair. When he discovers Jennifer's ability to telepathically speak to insects, the two team up along with McGregor's monkey Tonga, to discover who the killer is. I know, pretty silly sounding, but it works.

The whole psychic connection with insects did come off as a gimmick at first, but it does get used effectively and leads to some creepy moments. There are a lot of great scares in this movie, but these scenes are accompanied by an irritating soundtrack that felt inappropriate at times. And yes, the final 30 minutes or so of the film do feel like a Friday the 13th movie. But the twists and turns along the way, and the over the top ending made it impossible for me to hate this film.

Phenomena has become one of my favorite films of Dario Argento, and one that I would highly recommend to those who haven't seen any of his films but have an interest in doing so. It doesn't get as strange as it does with Phenomena normally, but strange doesn't usually get as fun as it does with this film.

:fresh:

Phenomena

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