Review of Phenomena (1985) by Fredrik T — 02 Mar 2009

There are two ways in which Dario Argento failed to disappoint me with this combination of giallo horror and extrasensory phantasm. In one way, the dialogue and its effect on the characters is cheesy and unrealistic, an element for which one can always count on the giallo icon. The acting is indeed awful, mostly owing to the frustrating giallo and spaghetti western tradition of most of the Italian and other non-English speaking cast dubbing their voices into English for the American and English distribution. In another way, Argento fashions a truly entertaining supernatural horror film. At the beginning, we're engaged by his use of irony and red herrings. The charm is that you really don't know where it's going. Regardless of any of its deep flaws in quality, we are kept in suspense till the very end.

Indeed, I admire this movie very much. Giallo had degenerated into mondo, where authentic cruelty to animals, accidents, tribal initiation rites and surgeries are a common feature. Argento shows a fascination for not only a chimpanzee, who is a character in the story, but insects, by portraying his heroine, played by a very young Jennifer Connelly. There are many insects that are disappearing, and most people just want to kill them, usually for no particular reason. Argento knows this, and gives his animals the position in his narrative of guiding the human characters. He also allows animals to avenge personal wrongdoings towards them, making this a rare treat, a horror film for animal lovers like me.

The film's score features wildly incongruous heavy metal music by Iron Maiden and Motörhead aside from the score on which Goblin, Bill Wyman and Andi Sexgang collaborated, affording the movie a grave indulgence in epitomal 1980s schlockiness. But strangely, the music doesn't quite turn me off. It's icing on the cake of such boisterous stylization, with its many prowling steadicam shots expanding the director's idiosyncratic style of vivid color schemes and an emphasis on voyeurism, that it's actually rather hypnotic. I was beginning to lose faith in Argento. There aren't many of his films that I like, save for Suspiria a few I've yet to tap. But Phenomena was a vast and refreshing entertainment.