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Overall Rating : 6.5/10
Directed By : Dario Argento
Jennifer Connelly (The Hulk)
Daria Nicolodi (Mother of Tears)
Fiore Argento (Demons)
Donald Pleasence (Halloween (1978) )
Supplied By : Anchor Bay Entertainment
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : May. 20, 2008
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| PLOT Jennifer Corvino is an outcast student at a Swiss boarding school who discovers both her telepathic power to control insects and the gore-soaked trail of a razor-wielding killer. Can a kindly professor now harness her ‘gift’ to stop the bloodbath of a psychopath? |
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| THE REVIEW In Dario Argento's PHENOMENA, Jennifer Corvino(the Daughter of a famous Actor), is sent to a beautiful, exclusive all girl Academy in Switzerland. It's a school picked by her Father and at first everything is pleasant. But as night falls and the girls go to sleep. Something that Jennifer has had to deal with for quite awhile - her sleepwalking. The sleepwalking finds her leaving the academy to wonder aimlessly outside looking for something, for what, she does not know. Then, literally by accident, she meets a Professor by the name of John McGregor. McGregor seems fascinated by Jennifer, especially by her telephonic power and here ability to communicate with various insects, saying that it was something like he had never seen. Afterwards, Jennifer heads back to school for what she thought would be a good night's sleep, but unfortunately, in her sleep, she experiences nightmares that features a seemingly faceless serial killer. With each dream, Jennifer begins to believe that she is somehow connected with this killer - but unfortunately the students and staff think that she is crazy and possibly schizophrenic. But Jennifer knows better, instead she tries to avoid it by visiting the Professor, the only one to believe her. Collecting all of the evidence in Jennifer's head, as well as psychical evidence she had discovered while sleepwalking one night, McGregor is convinced that Jennifer has what it takes to bring the killer down Armed with a flesh-eating breed of fly, she takes it upon her self to track down the killer......but unbeknownst to her there are some twist and turns that would lie ahead. First off, Dario Argento is one of my favorite directors, and his SUSPIRA is one of my favorite Horror films of all time. Argento's film's when speaking about them among Horror fans, likes and dislikes are usually split down the middle. Argento has his own style and his own feel that he incorporates into his films, and it's most often this style is consistent in all of his films, the blood is over the top and DEEP RED, and yes some of the frights and kills are a bit unorthodox. some people don't like that, possibly because they're not used to seeing it). but I love it. I like to describe Dario Argento's films as "moving nightmares", because almost every one of his films is as if the audience is put front and center to witness a nightmare. PHENOMENA is at times dark and gloomy and is such a nightmare that I mention. It has the look of the time (1985). and of many other films at the time, such as FRIDAY THE 13th, while possibly taking influences from films such as CARRIE the THE FURY(regarding the telepathy only - they obviously used it to go in a different direction here). And with almost all 80's Horror, PHENOMENA has the ever familiar sub-plot. The sub-plot here is that the kids and school staff pick on Jennifer thinking she's weird and running her through unnecessary test. Now we know what the real plot here is - Jennifer hunting down the killer.....that's the core of the film, everything else is moreorless there to pad the movie....yes even some of the dialogue. Although this film is a greatly entertaining Horror flick, just like any other film, it does have some flaws. My biggest complaint, I guess I should say is that at some points in the film, the story is unclear, and by film's end a little confusion still lies I think maybe a few characters were rushed in a little too quickly, thus creating a "Who's, Who?" scenario. Jennifer Connelly and Donald Pleasence are great here. Even though Connelly was only about 14 here, and Pleasence was already a well developed actor, I though their on-screen friendship was believable and genuine. Pleasence wasn't actually a main star here, rather a featured one, but in the scenes that he is in, he delivers the type of character we were accustomed to, drawing us in with yet another great performance. To close, PHENOMENA is a fun movie with scares, over the top gory kills, and a dark and mysterious way of telling it's story, that fans. especially of 80's Horror, would most likely enjoy. A Dario Argento 5 movie collection Boxset containing : PHENOMENA. TENEBRE, THE CARD PLAYER, DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? and TRUAMA, will be released the same day as the single releases of PHENOMENA and TENEBRE. Unfortunately I did not receive the whole set due to the high demand that ANCHOR BAY received. |
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| GORE
METER 5.5/10 The gore is pretty good here. There are multiple impalements, a severed arm and head |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 6/10 Like any Argento flick, the soundtrack is booming with rock tracks fro, multiple collaborators, Goblin, and bands by the likes of Motorhead and Iron Maiden. The score isn't as good as SUSPIRIA's but it's still great. due to Goblin's(who did SUSPIRIA'S nightmare inducing score)participation. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Prior to reviewing this, PHENOMENA was one of the Argento fims I had not seen. And by the looks of the trailer. I knew i'd like it....and sure enough, I did. As many have already said, PHENOMENA just might be one of Argento's best. This DVD will be released on May 27, 2008 |
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