To quote the sub-header on Wikipedia: “Not to be confused with Phenomenon“, the film starring John Travolta as a schmuck who develops great intelligence, clairvoyance, and telekinesis after a mysterious encounter with some astral, well, phenomenon. (For the record, I don’t hate the film, in fact I love the idea, but the execution was sappy and saccharine as hell, and the film went on waaaay too long for its own good.) Gotta love it.
But it’s true, you shouldn’t confuse Phenomenon with Dario Argento’s 1985 offering Phenomena.
Just like last time we encountered Argento (remember Tenebre?), we’ve got a giallo film on our hands, but one with a supernatural bent. See, the story is set at and around a Swiss boarding school for girls, a former home of composer Richard Wagner (whom the exposition refers to as “Richard Wagner”, the first syllable of the last name being the act of a happy or excited dog’s tail, ’cause why try, right?). There’s been a string of murders in the area, but we’ll get to that later. For the time being, we find out that not only does our newest student – the daughter of a famous actor – have a habit of sleepwalking, but she also seems to have the ability to telepathically control insects. She makes friends, so to speak, with a local forensic entomologist, who just so happens to have a helper chimp (sadly not named Mojo). As the murders continue alongside the girl’s increasingly erratic-looking behavior (yeah, I’d probably react negatively toward someone who could summon a sky-filling swarm of flies, call me an asshole), there’s suspicion that she’s behind the killings, possibly a manifestation of her powers while sleepwalking. Insert tussling and revelations, the usual trappings of giallo, just with some occasional insect telepathy tossed in for good measure.
I’m not entirely sure why I keep giving Dario Argento so many second chances. Likely his most well-regarded film, Suspiria, was downright unwatchable for me, and would have just been some kind of Ken Russell-by-way-of-Italian-exploitation exercise were it not for the sumptuous use of color and otherwise striking visuals. I think it’s because his name carries a lot of panache amongst horror crowds, but I just don’t get the love. Similarly-styled Italian directors of his time – including Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, and Claudio Fragasso (look, Troll II was a mess, but it could have been avoided) – have also received some post-career love from horror fans, but it pales in comparison to the Argento hype, which also tends to carry over into mainstream film criticism circles. So far, I’ve tried the aforementioned Suspiria and Tenebre, his two best-regarded films, as well as Inferno and now Phenomena, and I still don’t get the hype. As per usual, the visuals are pretty striking, if a bit less color-swathed than previous outings, but I could just as easily attribute this to cinematographer Romano Albani, who also made Inferno and Troll look better than they had any reason to (as well as, possibly, the made-for-TV remake of Roman Holiday that apparently came out in 1987 whydoIlookintothingslikethisohgodohgodwhynowI’mthinkingaboutseeingitpleasestopmeplea-), as to give Argento the credit. Just as usual, the visuals are much stronger than the narrative, which is a needless collection of knots involving brutal murders, psychic powers, sleepwalking, bugs, and a chimp. It’s a barely tenable mess, and the dubbing (okay, maybe it just seems like it was all dubbed, what with some awkard-sounding deliveries, strange audio mixes, and whatnot, though Donald Pleasance and Jennifer Connelly sound normal, so…) doesn’t help matters. The music isn’t as grating as previous Goblin-fueled outings, but the songs, including tracks from Iron Maiden and Motörhead, still feel out of place when referenced with the visuals and the story.
The acting is something of a saving grace, actually. A young Jennifer Connelly, a year before her epochal role in Labyrinth (and a year after appearing in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America), does expectedly rather well as the insect-controlling girl, even if much of her time is spent running and screaming and so forth without much reason (I’m looking at you, scene involving the two dudes who pick her up in the worst way possible). Donald Pleasance is also a welcome delight, bringing his trademark gravitas and intelligence – and a healthy Scottish accent, for some reason – to the table. The supporting cast is also fairly strong for a giallo flick, even if the script doesn’t give them much to work with.
All in all, Phenomena (or Creepers, for us Americans who got a butchered cut of the film in what would be Argento’s last theatrical release of note) is an okay film, an odd giallo picture that doesn’t offer too much beyond the whole insect-controlling thing, which is just kinda weird, really. It’s only worth a targeted watch for the finale, which provides us with a great shot of Connelly hugging Inga (the aforementioned chimp).
Allusions of Grandeur 