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7
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10
= Highest Rating |
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After
the 'straight' giallo conventions of 1982's Tenebre,
Italian director Dario Argento returned to the realm of the
fantastic with his follow-up film, Phenomena.
A blend of the giallo and the supernatural, the result is a
mixed bag — the sum not quite equal to its parts — but still
a noteworthy, often shocking thriller. Surely it's one of the
most bizarrely plotted 'psycho on the loose' flicks ever.
The film opens with typical Argento verve,
with crane shots sweeping 'round wind-tossed trees accompanied
by an eerie musical piece ("The Valley") composed
by Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman. Young Danish tourist Vera
Brandt (Fiore Argento, one of the director's daughters) is accidentally
stranded in the foothills of the Swiss Alps. When she goes to
a nearby house to seek help, the girl is instead brutally attacked
with chains and a pair of scissors by an unseen assailant. Pursued
to a nearby waterfall, Vera is stabbed to death and decapitated.
(Here Argento again goes for the "head breaking through
glass" motif used in Deep
Red,
Suspiria, Inferno,
and Tenebre;
it's used twice in this film alone.)
Flash forward eight months: Inspector Geiger
(Patrick Bauchau) of the Swiss Police is consulting with insect
specialist Prof. John McGregor on the discovery of a severed,
badly decomposed head. The kindly, wheelchair-bound professor
(nicely played with a thick Scots burr by Donald Pleasence)
is an expert on the "8 Squadrons of Death" — the eight
distinct cycles of interaction between insect larvae and human
corpses. By examining the maggots present on a cadaver, McGregor
explains, one can forensically determine the time of death.
Geiger is investigating the disappearance and possible murder
of a number of teenage girls, including McGregor's one-time
assistant. Geiger believes that the head is that of the missing
tourist, Vera Brandt.
Meanwhile, 13 year old Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer
Connelly - The
Rocketeer,
Dark
City),
daughter of a famous American movie star, arrives in Switzerland
to attend a prestigious private academy. With the exception
of her French roommate Sophie, Jennifer does not fit in with
the other girls,
particularly once it's learned she's prone to sleepwalking and
has an odd affinity for insects. This "affinity" is
actually an empathic/telepathic communication — her love of
bugs is reciprocated, even to the point of insects coming to
her aid when they sense she's in distress! When Sophie disappears
in the night (yes, the maniac has struck again), a firefly leads
Jennifer to an important clue: a glove, crawling with maggots,
dropped by the killer. From the squirming larvae Jennifer gets
the mental impression that Sophie has been murdered. Fearing
that the police will question her sanity, she tells her story
instead to Prof. McGregor, her new-found friend and fellow bug
enthusiast. Trusting her incredible "gift" (as he
calls it), McGregor divines a truly unique way to trace the
monstrous serial killer to his lair...
Phenomena
asks the audience to swallow a lot. On the surface the
plot is incredibly farfetched, yet Argento infuses the story
with enough atmosphere — providing ample shocks en route — to
keep us playing along. As one would expect from the Italian
horror master, the sleepwalking sequences and murder set-pieces
are terrific. He also makes interesting use of macro photography
with the insects. (The 'squeaking' bees and 'chirping' ladybugs
are a bit much, though.) The movie's blood-spattered climax
is as horrifying as it is illogical.
In a Dario Argento film, of course, the music
is almost as important as the images. And like the film itself,
Phenomena's
musical score is a hit and miss affair; even more so as it's
a patchwork of songs by heavy metal rock bands interspersed
with pieces by long-time Argento collaborators Goblin. Mostly
it works, but there are two distinct occasions (victim # 2's
wandering about in a closed-off section of the school; Jennifer's
exploration of Frau Bruckner's house) when silence would have
been much more effective than head-banging guitar riffs.
Despite its flaws,
Phenomena
should please any diehard Argento fan. Neophytes might react
somewhat harsher, but they're still guaranteed a wild ride —
not to mention a good case of the willies.
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| The
Phenomena
disc is another example of Anchor Bay's fine treatment of Argento's
work. A solid letterboxed transfer (albeit not anamorphic)
and 5.1 Dolby sound track are complimented by two music videos
(by Bill Wyman and Goblin's Claudio Simonetti), a "behind
the scenes" segment culled from Dario
Argento's World Of Horror,
talent bios, a theatrical trailer, and an audio commentary with
director Argento, composer Simonetti, and special make-up effects
artist Sergio Stivaletti. A truly bizarre 1980s appearance by
Argento on The Joe Franklin Show is also included: Argento,
struggling uncomfortably with English, tries to plug the heavily-edited
U.S. version of the film (retitled Creepers) while being
asked idiotic questions by clueless fossil Franklin. 6/11/01 |
| UPDATE
The disc reviewed here has been OOP for years. In May 2008 Anchor
Bay is releasing an anamorphic edition of
Phenomena containing a new featurette.
The 2008 edition will also be issued as part of the 6-disc Dario
Argento Box Set. |
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