What do you get when you mix a psychic teen’s ability to control insects with that of a serial killer stalking the students of an all-girls boarding school, a straight-razor-wielding chimp and Donald Pleasence? If you’ve come up with the answer “A Dario Argento film” then you are clearly a student of Italian Giallo and the works of one of its most preeminent directors, a man who can’t say no to a little bit of gruesomeness, especially if it’s a beautifully shot. This brings us to the film we will be looking at today, Phenomena, an Italian Giallo/ supernatural horror film that looks like it was created via a dark evening spent playing Mad Libs.
How well can you appreciate maggots? The answer to that question will be key in factoring one’s enjoyment of Dario Argento’s Phenomena, a film whose lead protagonist has a decidedly interesting relationship with the creepy crawlies of the world. Considered by many to be a “lower-tier Giallo” from Argento and while this particular entry offers much of the dark and murderous elements of the Giallo genre it also adds a supernatural hook that puts it closer to his earlier Suspiria, that both these films deal with an all-girls boarding school makes one question his view on such establishments, and though influences by American horror films rear their head quite prominently this film is still a very Argento offering, with all the weirdness that entails.
“There is a chimpanzee behind me, isn’t there?”
The movie opens like your standard slasher film with a young girl (Fiore Argento) missing her bus and while looking for assistance falls victim to the killer, who cuts her head off with a pair of scissors, and this brutal attack sets up the tone of the film as well as the mystery – who owns the house that the poor girl wandered into and who or what was chained up there – but after that exciting opening we are introduced to the film’s chief protagonists, Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly), an American teenager who was been sent to live at the Richard Wagner School for Girls in Switzerland by her famous father, who is off filming a movie in the Philippines. Right away we learn that Jennifer is not your average teenager as she seems to have a rather strong affinity for insects, quite empathetic and loving, and this trait will come in handy when tracking down a killer, but it does tend to make her less than compassionate classmates take a rather strong dislike to her. That she can call forth a swarm of flies as if she was Moses bringing down the wrath of God does not help her win any friends either.
Note: This movie engages the standard trope of displaying a girl's psychic powers by having the wind suddenly come out of nowhere to tussle her hair.
Of course, dealing with the scorn of the resident “mean girls” is the least of Jennifer’s problems because not only can she communicate telepathically with insects, but she also has a penchant for sleepwalking, and this leads to her “witnessing” the murder of one of her fellow students and becoming a target of this film’s killer. On the plus side, her somnambulism does result in an encounter with a wayward chimpanzee and a trip to meet her master, forensic entomologist John McGregor (Donald Pleasence), who the local police have solicited his aid regarding the series of murders that have occurred throughout the countryside, that this place is also known as Swiss Transylvania makes you wonder if this kind of thing is not routine it’s at least expected. When McGregor discovers Jennifer’s unique affinity for insects, he suggests that they use a Great Sarcophagus fly, an insect that is drawn to decaying human flesh and thus could lead her to the killer’s lair, and before you can say “Child endangerment” fourteen-year-old Jennifer is traipsing across the countryside looking for corpses.
“If anyone asks, just tell them you’re doing this for extra credit.”
To say that Argento’s Phenomena is a little on the weird side would be a massive understatement, fans of Argento pretty much expect the weird and the off-putting when sitting down to watch one of his films, and while the plot mechanics may often defy logic or even basic sensibilities it’s the fantastical look and cinematography that he brings to a project that makes his film stand out, wonderfully provided her by cinematographer Romano Albino, and reason may take a back seat in this outing, make no mistake, gore and horror will not. Special makeup effects artists M. Garrone and Pierantonio Mecacci provide some truly gruesome moments and with each victim’s untimely death the horror and terror really begin to mount. But who is behind these brutal killings? Is it the school’s Headmistress (Dalila Di Lazzaro), a stern and unsympathetic woman who thinks Jennifer belongs in a mental hospital? Could it be the school nurse (Francesca Ottaviani) who is convinced that Jennifer is "diabolic" and possibly responsible for the killings? Then there is Frau Brückner (Daria Nicolodi) who has a dark and horrifying secret that she will do anything to protect, so yeah, it’s not much of a mystery.
A face only a mother could love, and also kill for.
Stray Observations:
• The film’s first victim literally calls out “I’m a foreigner and I’m lost” as if she were intentionally taunting a serial killer to come after her.
• If one were to go by the films of Dario Argento, I’d say it’s best to never send your daughter to a European boarding school as the odds of her surviving are not all that good.
• Whenever someone said the name “Frau Brückner” I kept expecting to hear a horse outside loudly whinnying in fright.
• Watching Donald Pleasence playing a forensic entomologist in this movie has me bemoaning the fact that we never got CSI: Haddonfield or at least a guest appearance on Bones for him.
• Apparently, Swiss boarding schools have a low tolerance for sleepwalking as they immediately call in a doctor to attach electrodes to the poor girl’s head. Why a boarding school would even have such a set-up is a question best not asked.
• Jennifer Connelly falls into a pool of rotting bodies, something poor JoBeth Williams also had to endure a couple of years earlier in Poltergeist.
Question: Just how much money does a teacher at a private school actually make? Not only does Frau Brückner have a secret lair under her house, fully equipped with a corpse pool, but the upstairs has quick-activating steel shutters, and is that in case a SWAT team arrives?
While I do agree this is not one of Dario Argento’s best films I still quite enjoyed it, especially in the case of Donald Pleasence as the caring father figure who provides both warmth and understanding to our beleaguered heroine, even though he sends her on the trail of a serial killer, and then matching the wonderful visuals we get a beautiful score by Simon Boswell and Goblin, on the hand, with Jennifer Connelly it’s more a mixed bag because Argento is notorious for not being an “actor’s director” and a young Connelly was often left to flounder without support from her director, not to mention having to fend off an angry chimp co-star. That Connelly didn’t end up needing therapy after this film wrapped is a miracle in itself.
“We suggest, for your next film, you team up with David Bowie and some Muppets.”
Overall, Phenomena is a bizarre yet darkly whimsical fantasy film that engages in moments of bizarre whimsy that are then almost immediately shifted to horror and repulsion, the aforementioned maggots being a key element there, and it’s clear Argento tried to borrow elements from such American films as The Fury and Friday the 13th, and while these disparate parts did combine to make a dreamy if incredibly violent outing, did it all work? Not exactly, style over substance is a dangerous road to travel and while Dario Argento is a master of horror this particular entry is not his best but there is still much to offer fans of the genre.
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