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Phenomena

Phenomena

List Price: $29.98
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 80s Italian horror strikes back!!!
Review: This is Argento's supernatural film gone metal, lots of sweet 80s metal played in this flick!!! Not much gore, but maggots and midgets and monkies with big butts! and beautiful schoolgirls! (argento's favorite, bwahaha) get the film!!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: hi-ho, hi-ho, it's back to "Suspiria" we go...
Review: What if Dario Argento became so out of his mind he wanted to direct a 'Wonderful World of Disney' special but keep the slasher trimmings he holds so near and dear to his heart? Well, the result would be "Phenomena," a dull-as-a-rusty-razor inductee in Argento's 'Three Blunders' trilogy ("Inferno" and "Phantom of the Opera" are the others).

The movie, which has aspects that are pretty interchangeable with Argento's previous (and better) shocker, "Suspiria," revolves around Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly, in the Jessica Harper role), the daughter of a movie star who is sent to a foreboding Swiss boarding school. Oh, and did I mention there's a killer lurking in the shadows? Jennifer quickly bonds with her roommate, but isn't accepted by the other girls, perhaps because she has the uncanny ability to communicate with the insect world (no, I'm being serious here). She's befriended by an entomologist (Donald Pleasence) with a pet monkey, and is ultimately drafted to uncover the murderer with the help of her creepy-crawly buddies.

When I purchased "Phenomena," I thought there was no way it could miss. Being a fan of Argento's previous films I expected something of quality, something that would blow my mind. Well, all I can say is that this movie just isn't very good, and certainly not up to snuff with "Suspiria," "Tenebrae," "Deep Red," or even "Trauma." Jennifer Connelly may have been a find at the time, but this film was not to be her best work (check out "Dark City" or "Requiem for a Dream" instead); in addition, Donald Pleasance seems bored to death by the gratuitous chattiness of the script (at least John Carpenter didn't pad out the scares in "Halloween" with droning dialogue scenes).

The newly-remastered Anchor Bay edition of "Phenomena" looks and sounds great and even has a lot of extras tacked on at the end. When the film was released in the States as "Creepers," over 20 minutes were cut by the distributor, and those are restored here, but it really isn't to the film's advantage. While possibly passable at 82 minutes, "Phenomena" becomes damn near intolerable at close to 120, especially when you consider you could be watching one of Argento's GOOD films. The only saving grace is the last act, which takes place in an eerie, isolated mansion; there is a thrilling confrontation with the bizarre murderer...but things turn unbelievable (even for an Argento film) when not one, not two, but THREE characters show up in the same place, at the same time, just as a sheer coincidence. Come on.

As much as I'm bashing it, "Phenomena" is NOT the worst film Dario Argento has made, but it certainly isn't very good. It's lightweight enough to perhaps convert someone who's grown tired of the "Scream" films, but other than that there's not much to entice the viewer. It may be "Uncut and Uncensored!" but it's also more bloated than a beached whale.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Sorry Dario this one stank
Review: Alright I'm a big fan of the guy, but Phenomena just didn't impress me. The acting was pretty bad, the story just doesn't make much sense, not a lot of his cool shots, not a lot of gore until the end and it has a monkey smarter then everybody else. But there was a couple of cool scenes throughout the film. I guess the story was my main problem, just didn't buy it, but it might be your cup of tea.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of Argentos` best !
Review: Dario Argento throws in all his trademarks in this horror/fantasy extravaganza.A plain crime story mixed with dream sequences, gore, state of the art camerawork, maggots, fireflies, broken glass, running water, beautiful young girls and a brilliant soundtrack. You name it, it`s all here !

Argento has made a lot of mediocre movies the recent years, but this 1984 movie is a true classic.

The film is presented in 1.66:1 with a DD 5.1 soundtrack. Both picture and sound is good, but nothing spesial.Anchor bay has also thrown in some extras, but nothing very interesting in my opinion. There is a dull commentary with Argento and three of his collaborators in very broken english, a trailer, two music videos,a lousy behind the scenes segment, and a ridiculous Argento interview from a Joe Franklin show. And don`t be fooled to believe that the 28 minutes that is restored in this UNCUT and UNCENSORED version is gore.It is simply the full european version, and all 28 minutes are plain story and character building.No doubt that this cut is much better than the "Creepers" cut, though.

It is the feature itself that makes this disc a must-have.They simply don`t make movies like this anymore ! (Neither does Argento, unfortunately !)

Now I can hardly wait for Anchor Bay to release "Opera" and " Suspiria."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An underrated gem from the italian horror maestro
Review: This film is underrated by both regular movie goers and Argetno fans, usually it is panned because of how bizzare it is, but the thing about an Argento film is that he has never been good at writing a narrative . For him the important thing is to affect you emotionally and psychologically, not in an intellectual way. This is probably his most bizzare and his most beautiful film. It is about a girl named Jennifer Corvino(Jennifer Connelly) who enrolls in a Swiss boarding school and her classmates are being murdered by a mysterious killer. She has a gift of being able to communicate telepathically with insects and with the help of an entomologist(Donald Pleasence) she tracks down the killer using her power. While i admit some of the narrative seems somewhat ridiculous it is a lush and beautiful film which has the feeling of a dream and Jennifer Connelly who has also starred in DARK CITY and REQUIEM FOR A DREAM is good enough in her first leading role. It also features a great musical score by Goblin and Bill Wyman. It also features the director's wife, Daria Nicolodi, and his one of his daughters, Fiore Argento. Watch for her in the impressive and scary opening sequence. You will notice this film is similar in many ways to SUSPIRIA but it manages to stand on it's own. In what other film will you see a monkey running wild with a razor blade!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Kick A**!!!
Review: This movie was awesome, pretty gory though, i mean its pretty rough to see a 14 year old girl get decapitated, but it was a great movie othr than that, some of the girls werent very good actresses though, Jennifer Connely did great howevr and of course Donald Pleasance. This movie was very exciting though, and the best part about it was when Iron Maiden's song was in it , i finally found a film that they did a song for which was "Flash of the Blade" a great song from a great band, thr my favrite group too. If ur a Maiden fan then check it out. Creepers rocks, check it out if ulike 80's horror flicks, and dont worry this isnt ur average chop em up flick.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I Did not like This Movie
Review: Sometimes i think that people are given money just so that they can be weird-movie makers, especially. I was highly disappointed. This freakish movie had a flimsy plot, not to mention an unbelieveably stupid ending. It starts with serial killing and ends on an off-balanced tangent. Although i understand the strands that they tried to pull together to get their ending-IT WAS STUPID. Try and imagine a mixture of "forensic detectives" and "Friday the Thirteenth-part any", without the good slasher characteristics. An "artwork" this is. I was highly disappointed. The star is for the unbelieveability of this story.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Argento's silly, but most underrated work.
Review: You can call Phenomina all the words in the book in the 1st hour and 30 minutes. Silly, baddly acted, dumb, unscarry and has a paper thin plot but the last 1/2 hour is like a knockout punch. For those familiar with his work it is like he takes the last 1/2 hour of Suspiria and crunches all the tension down to 15 minutes. The only bad thing is getting past the 1st hour and 1/2, but don't worry, the ending is killer(like in most Argento movies).

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Give me a break...
Review: C'mon people! Five stars for this garbage? I'm a big horror fan, I like "weird and offbeat horror", and have enjoyed other Italian horror films by such directors as Mario Bava. Based on the great reviews of this movie on this site, I decided to pick this one up and was I ever disappointed. It's not scary and you'll see more gore in a Friday the 13th or Freddy Kreuger movie. The plot is so incoherent that the film becomes absolutely tiresome to watch. The only good things about it are seeing Jennifer Connelly run around in her nightgown, and the heavy metal soundtrack (which actually sounds very misplaced in parts of the film). The best part of the DVD is listening to the commentary by the filmmakers, who actually seem to think they've made some great piece of art with this film, when it's really just high-budget amateur hour. The only reason to watch this film is if you want to see a slightly weird, bad horror movie. If you do watch it, keep your expectations waaaay low.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Real Scary !
Review: Ha Ha ! I just typed a long review at the film libary in Amsterdam, but I lost it ! I can not be bothered to type it all again,sorry. Suffice to say that this is one of the most scary films I have ever seen and I really reccomend that you buy this great DVD.


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