Phenomena

8/2/19851h 50m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ Jennifer has a few million close friends. She's going to need them all! ~

Overview:

A young girl, with an amazing ability to communicate with insects, is transferred to an exclusive Swiss boarding school, where her unusual capability might help solve a string of murders.

Director:

Dario Argento

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$3,800,000.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

daughter
insect
boarding school
psychopath
telepathy
detective
switzerland
girls' boarding school
murder
serial killer
teenage girl
school
maniac
american abroad
chimpanzee
murder investigation
sleepwalking
recurring dream
sanitorium
swiss
entomologist
maggots
flies
service animal
animals & nature
fly
whimsical

Cast

Jennifer Connelly

~ as ~

Jennifer Corvino

Daria Nicolodi

~ as ~

Frau Brückner

Fiore Argento

~ as ~

Vera Brandt

Federica Mastroianni

~ as ~

Sophie

Fiorenza Tessari

~ as ~

Gisela Sulzer

Dalila Di Lazzaro

~ as ~

Headmistress

Patrick Bauchau

~ as ~

Inspector Rudolf Geiger

Donald Pleasence

~ as ~

Professor John McGregor

Alberto Cracco

~ as ~

UBS Bank Teller

Kaspar Capparoni

~ as ~

Karl, Sophie's Boyfriend

View full cast & crew

Reviews (2)

John Chard
Written 10 year(s) ago
6
Phenomena, doo-doo doo-doo-doo.

Arriving at a Swiss Academy for girls, Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly) gets embroiled in the workings of a serial killer. Her friends the insects and Professor John McGregor (Donald Pleasence) are on hand to help if possible.

Directed and co-written by horror legend Dario Argento, Phenomena is a mixed bag. Ignoring the butchered American version, which was titled Creepers, the full uncut version is still messy. Argento the director is doing good work here, which explains why the film has a sturdy reputation. His eye for striking imagery and horror scene staging is evident here for sure, but Argento the writer (along with Franco Ferrini) fails to string a decent enough narrative together. Pace is all over the place, the dialogue often boorish, while wasting Donald Pleasence is a crime against horror film making. Still, there’s enough good Argento at work here to keep Phenomena above average, even if it’s more for the eyes than the brain. 6/10
t
talisencrw
Written 9 year(s) ago
8
Both a great chance to see two acting icons (one, Donald Pleasence, at his prime, and the other, Jennifer Connelly, just starting out on her filmic journey) and one of the films on director Argento's great run of horror classics, this is worth purchasing the finest print and will award the horror aficionado many great times in rewatches. Cinephiles often called Argento 'the Italian Alfred Hitchcock', and this would be a great Exhibit A for their evidence. Essential for connoisseurs of the arcane.