PHENOMENA (1984)
A film review by Mike Watson Copyright 1997 Mike Watson
RATING: 4 out of 5
The "Italian Hitchcock" and acknowledged master of the giallo murder-mystery Dario Argento again offers us a fascinating turn on the formula in PHENEOMENA.
This time the twist comes in the form of Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly), a bright teenager with gift for telepathically communicating with insects. Sent to a girls boarding school in Switzerland, she soon learns of a series of bizarre disappearances and at least one murder that has the school's population terrified. A chance meeting with a brilliant entomologist (Donald Pleasance) leads the two of them to team up and solve the mystery with the aid of her remarkable gift.
PHENOMENA is an imaginative, original thriller. Writer/director Argento creates several sequences of surreal, haunting beauty here, including a masterfully shot sleepwalking episode and a striking scene when a swarm of flying insects descends on the school at Jennifer's beckoning. The plot takes some wonderfully bizarre turns and the killer's identity is genuinely shocking and surprising.
The director took a big gamble with a soundtrack that mixes elements as diverse as heavy metal band Iron Maiden, ex-Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, and Argento's favourite Gothic/electronic outfit Goblin. But it gels surprisingly well. The film's opening music reccurs several times, an eerie and evocative score that perfectly sets the overall tone.
Argento fans beware: the film was released outside Europe in a terribly butchered form re-titled as CREEPERS. This deleted nearly half an hour of footage, mainly of key dialogue scenes.
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