| "It will make your skin crawl!" |
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| aka CREEPERS (1984) 109 mins DACFILM ; ITALY |
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| All truly great directors have their failures and this is Dario Argento's moment. In the dictionary definition, the adjective 'phenomena' means something unusual or remarkable. Unfortunately neither of those words can be used to describe Argento's latest fantasy slasher, Phenomena. It nearly breaks my heart to add that this misfiring project is the worst film he has ever been involved with. Only the most audacious - some would say ridiculous - climax to grace any film for many a year saves Phenomena from being a complete write-off. Otherwise Phenomena shows Argento out of control in a way I though would never be possible as he tries to combine elements from his past successes like Four Flies on Grey Velvet and Suspiria with other more routine influences from Homicidal and Friday the 13th. And the result is an incoherent mess. |  |
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There are two main reasons for Phenomena's failure. One is the counter-productive realistic setting of location filming in Zurich. Argento goes to great lengths to establish this area as the "Swiss Transylvania" but the look is at odds with the convoluted subject matter. Secondly, and more detrimental, is that Phenomena is Argento's first film to be shot entirely in the English language, and the result is stilted, banal dialogue, which is squirm-inducing when it isn't coming across as hysterically comic. Daria Nicolodi's dreadful performance adds insult to injury in this department. |
| Although it is a somewhat self-defeating exercise to try and describe the plot contained in Phenomena, here goes. I'm not entirely convinced that even Argento himself had a clear-cut idea of its major themes. Could that be why the film throws artifice and red herrings around with such wild abandon in an attempt to disguise the tedious and poorly paced exposition? Jennifer Connelly arrives at the Richard Wagner Academy for girls at a time when various nubile inmates are being murdered by an anonymous psychopath. Jennifer is a schizophrenic and as a result has two strange aspects to her character. One is that she sleepwalks with alarming regularity, and the other concerns her eerie telepathic control of insects (According to Argento's research, this latter gift is more common than any of us would suspect). |  |
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On one of her somnambulistic wanderings she sees a girl menaced by the masked killer and this is the only sequence that measures up to the usual powerful and poetic imagery we expect from an Argento movie. This dubious and deadly gift, plus an affinity for entomologist Donald Pleasence, spark the main thrust of the plot which involves such mind-boggling scenes as Jennifer using a fly to lead her to the murderer's lair as it can sniff out the decomposing bodies while traveling in a box on the local bus route! How a psychotic chimpanzee wielding a switchblade fits into all of this, I'll leave up to your imagination. |
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Argento's sloppy concoction is held together in part by crystal clear, almost black and white photography and some great music by the usual team of Claudio Simonetti and Goblin. Other contributions by Hawkwind, Iron Maiden and Andi Sex Gang are intrusive and deflate any suspense Argento is trying to build. Despite Argento's assurances that there wouldn't be much bloodletting in Phenomena, the last ten minutes belies that claim. A chained police inspector breaks his thumb to escape some manacles in order to lift Connelly out of a pit containing nothing but body parts. A deformed child is set on fire. A lawyer is decapitated by sheet metal. And Nicolodi's face is razored to pieces in the most graphic way Argento has ever dreamed up. These highlights are not enough though to save the badly plotted scenario lacking in the breathtaking set pieces we have come to expect from Argento's vivid imagination. I predict not only censor problems for Phenomena but also judicious editing to excise some of the more ludicrous moments before the film gets a UK release. At nearly two hours in length, the film really does need it. Illogicality has always been one of Argento's more endearing mainstays in the past. Here though, it has a depressing and shallow ring as if he is clutching at straws in an effort to make the nonsensical seem profound. And when the killer is revealed to be a deformed child not even in his teens, it trivialises the whole affair. How could he possibly pose any threat to all the adolescent girls who scream and cower, when all they really need to do is kick him in the face! Enough of this permeating disappointment in what has to date been the only aberration in Argento's illustrious career. The really good news is that with this debacle now well and truly behind him, he is now at work on the final part of his Three Mothers trilogy. Dario Argento is going to lose many people with Phenomena but I have no doubt that he will reclaim them in the future. |
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reviewed by Alan Jones |
| credits | |
| cast: | Jennifer Connelly, Donald Pleasance, Daria Nicolodi, Dalila Di Lazzaro, Patrick Bauchau |
| director: | Dario Argento |
| producer: | Dario Argento |
| screenplay: | Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini |
| cinematography: | Romano Albani |
| music: | Simon Boswell, Goblin, Claudio Simonetti, Claudio Pignatelli |
| sfx: | Sergio Stivaletti |
| technical information | |
| negative: | 35mm |
| print: | 35mm |
| aspect ratio: | 1.66:1 |
| format: | Panavision (spherical) |
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