Review of Phenomena (1985) by Dougal S — 03 Jul 2011

A girl that can control insects, a razor blade wielding chimpanzee, a killer that likes skewering people on a spike, lots of girls exploding through sheets of glass when killed and a bunch of heavy metal songs on the soundtrack... oh yes - that'll be Phenomena.

Dario Argento had, by this point, left giallo behind and was making supernatural thrillers instead but all the usual ingredients are here. Blood, mayhem and an odd sense of artistic photography.... and a private girls school. The plot itself is the usual nonsense - there's a killer hacking his way through the young girls in the local area where Jennifer Connelly turns up to go to boarding school. Unfortunately for Jennifer she's prone to sleepwalking and is seen by the killer who intends to kill her as well. Donald Pleasence turns up as a wheelchair bound scientist and Jennifer turns out to be able to commune with insects with whose help she intends to track down the killer.

This is possibly Argento's last great film as his later work became less grandiose and artistic and lacked the flair of this earlier work. Unfortunately it's an oft forgotten one thanks to some shoddy marketing on it's initial release but one to hunt out for fans of Italian horror.