Phenomena Blu-ray Review
Dario Argento broke his stride with this horror that became less slasher and more bug related fantasy. But there is a clever monkey in there too and if you can get a monkey with lots of screen time then so much the better.
Jennifer Connelly plays the part of a girl who comes to realise she has the power to summon swarms of insects to do her bidding. Now that sounds like the making of a great power but honestly, it is a character add-on that serves to help her out of a couple of nasty situations.
What is really happening is, someone has been cutting the heads off young girls as evidenced by the opening sequence. Enter a group of police detectives (one of which is portrayed by Italian director to be Michele Soavi) and Donald Pleasance as a scientist who helps out with the aid of his primate friend.
The film is much more fairytale in nature – much like Suspiria and Inferno. The make-up effects here do range from not bad to piss-poor though and whilst it is 1984, we know for a fact that better was done before these rubber atrocities.
The film as a whole does, in retrospect, fit in nicely among Argento’s more stand out works. At the time it was kind of glossed over, but there is perhaps more under the surface of the script that you may first suspect. Phenomena as a result has gathered a bit of a cult following over the years.
This Arrow release of the film comes packed with interviews with the likes of the effects people, actress Daria Nicolodi, composer Claudio Simonetti, a Q&A session and even a 50 minute making of. Arrow are proving to be the go-to-guys for retro horror releases. Thumbs up!
Steven Hurst