Phenomena Review

MPAA Rating: NR
Released: 1985

Dario Argento is widely recognized as one of the premiere Italian horror directors, largely due in part to his surreal storylines and visceral murders. Phenomena, which was released in 1985, was among the director's more quirky and twisted works, featuring the story of an American girl that uses her psychic connection with bugs to track down a serial killer that's viciously murdering teenagers residing at a private Swiss boarding school.

The film opens at a rural bus stop located in the pristine Swiss Alps. As a loaded bus drives away, a teenage foreigner futilely attempts to flag it down, having just missed it. Stranded in the middle of a foreign land, she looks around and sees nothing but mountains, trees, pastures and one country home down a sandy path.

She enters the seemingly abandoned home and calls out for help, but receives no response. Well, at least no positive response, because her calls do get the attention of something or someone chained to a wall downstairs. The person or thing struggles to free itself from its manacles and eventually succeeds in ripping them out of the wall before charging after the intruder. Within moments, the hapless young girl falls victim to the murderous monstrosity.

When Phenomena transitions to the next scene we see an American girl named Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly) being driven to the Richard Wagner School for Girls, a posh institute located in the sleepy countryside of Switzerland. Since Jennifer is the main star of the film it would only be right to share a bit about her before continuing further.

Jennifer is the privileged daughter of a world-renowned actor and has been sent to the Swiss school while her father was on a movie shoot. In the past Jennifer has suffered serious bouts of sleepwalking, though this affliction seems to be under control nowadays. She enjoys baby food. She loves bugs – reeaaally loves bugs. And the bugs love her back, to the point of spurting pheromones at her in order to win over her affections. Oh, and if that wasn't odd enough for you, get this: she's also a vegetarian!

[This review has been momentarily interrupted in order to state that the 80's Reborn is not responsible for viewpoints expressed in this Phenomena review. We in no way believe that vegetarians are loopy or otherwise normality-impaired, nor would we suggest that any love expressed between bugs and humans is in any way abnormal. In this day and age of acceptance, if happiness can be found between a human and a bug then we wish them the best. No back to your regularly scheduled review.]

Jennifer's fondness for bugs makes her an outcast of sorts within her school (go figure!). Her fellow students mercilessly mock her while the Headmistress (Dalila Di Lazzaro) places her under psychiatric evaluation. But she does stumble across one sympathetic soul that can relate with her obsession: an entomologist by the name of John McGregor (Donald Pleasence).

McGregor was previously using his knowledge of bugs (particularly larvae that develop on rotting body parts) to help local investigators track down a killer that's targeting girls attending Jennifer's school. When he discovers Jennifer's psychic connection to bugs, he convinces her to help track down the killer via her link with nature's ultimate pest: the fly.

The movie concludes with a gory culmination of a demented woman, an off-kilter inspector, a misshapen kid and a seriously pissed off monkey. Yeah, it's as weird as it sounds. Then again every nationality has their quirks. Americans like big guns. Frenchmen like white flags. And Italians like bizarre movies.

[Note: We at the 80's Reborn are not responsible for the broad and likely inaccurate generalizations of… oh, the hell with it. Just ignore everything this reviewer is saying.]

Phenomena is truly a sum of its parts; you'll find plenty to criticize and quite a bit to like as well. First, the good:

Donald Pleaseance is always pleasingly consistent, making his presence in this film very welcome. In fact he was one of the reasons I wanted to watch Phenomena (though I also have to plead guilty to liking horror B-movies too). This was also Jennifer Connelly's first real starring role (her cinematic debut was a brief appearance in Once Upon A Time In America), and although her performance is a little bit unpolished and flat at times, she did a pretty good job all in all.

The rest of the cast consisted primarily of Italian actors, and they were neither noteworthy nor terrible. They just provided the necessary bodies to keep Phenomena moving.

Some people may be critical of Dario Argento's soundtrack, but I personally thought it was one of the movie's strengths. Much of Phenomena is driven by heavy metal (Iron Maiden, Motorhead, etc.), though Claudio Simonetti (of Goblin fame) offered some extremely atmospheric operatic and gothic rock interludes. The mix of beauty and aggression in the soundtrack lent some scenes a heavy dose of eeriness and others a frantic urgency.

Phenomena's flaws consist of uneven acting (normal in horror films), a few scenes that dragged, and too much ambition. While shooting for the stars is normally not a problem, Argento almost tried to interweave too many quirky characters or situations into the film, making it a bit too disjointed and odd for my ideal tastes. Some might like the oddities, but to me the film's various threads were like a series of attractive ribbons being tied together into a crooked bow.

Phenomena may not be a perfect movie, but I still recommend it for most horror fans. Argento brought some new ideas to the table and while they didn't flow seamlessly, they made for a unique and enjoyable movie experience.

Note: Phenomena in its uncut form has a runtime of 110 minutes. This film was originally released in America under the name of Creepers, but I do not recommend this version since it was heavily edited down to just over 80 minutes. The uncut version was used for the basis of this review.

Movie rating: 7 stars

If you enjoyed Phenomena you may also find the following films to be of interest:

Enjoy the Phenomena experience in the comfort of your own home with these products!

DVD

VHS

Soundtrack

Other Resources:

Phenomena IMDb Page

Movie Sitemap

Wondering if the Netflix service is all
it's cracked up to be? Read our
detailed review and find out!