Review of Phenomena (1985) by John P — 14 Dec 2009

Moments of shit and absurdity are balanced by moments of pure genius.

Jennifer Connelly plays a girl sent away to a boarding school in Europe (shades of Suspiria) who has the ability to telepathically communicate with insects (shades of Aquaman). She uses this power to help out forensic scientist Donald Pleasance (shades of Halloween/Raw Meat? Stretching, but whatever) catch a mysterious killer who leaves a trail of bodies all around the school (shades of every other fucking Argento movie ever).

Is it far-fetched? Hell yeah, but it's an awesome premise. It's just too bad the execution is so goddamn uninspired and lackluster. Murder scenes are staged poorly, dialogue scenes consist of one wide shot that goes on for 3 straight minutes (not for any artistic merit, mind you, but because the editor sucks.).

In fact, let's see what this editor did other than this movie. Franco Fraticelli, the guy who edited every single Argento movie until Opera. So, this is the guy who edited Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Deep Red, and Suspiria. How the hell could he fuck up so badly? Seriously, this has some really terrible timing that robs you of any scares, and in fact almost ruins the film's biggest scare (it doesn't ruin it, but it comes awfully close).

Like Argento's previous movie, Tenebre, this movie suffers from being completely uninspired and flat until the very end, where it has a fantastic payoff. And this sucks, because the rest of the movie could have been as brilliant as the ending. It's strange, Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, and Suspiria are three of Argento's best works, and yet all three suffer somewhat from abrupt, illogical endings. The opposite is here.

Uh, anyway, the cinematography is aight as far as mid-80s 1.85:1 horror movies go, and the music led by Claudio Simonetti is always fantastic.

But Argento seems to have lost his flair somewhat in the 80s. I can only hope Opera and his 90s efforts make up for the lack of inspiration that his early 1980s films showcase.