dutch phenomena dvd review

PHENOMENA
DACFILM ; ITALY

dvd specification
original year of release: 1984
approximate running time: 111 minutes
aspect ratio: letterboxed widescreen
system: PAL (colour)
rating: NL 16
sound: english dolby digital 2.0
dvd release: italian shock entertainment
region: 2
region coding: 2
dvd extras
dutch subtitles
theatrical trailer
stills gallery
essay on Argento
filmographies

[video][sound][extras][conclusion]

Jennifer Corvino (Connelly) arrives at an exclusive girls school in Switzerland, populated by a stern, beautiful headmistress, taunting classmates and a psychotic killer stabbing young girls and keeping parts of their bodies. However, Jennifer has an unusual gift and can communicate with and befriend insects. This and the fact that she has a habit of sleep walking lead her to an entomologist John McGregor (Pleasance) with whom she at last has a common interest. Together they start to try and solve the recent killings, with the help of insects (actually the Great Sarcophocus fly which feeds exclusively on human remains) , until Pleasance is killed and then its all down to Jennifer.

video
Once again a less then perfect release of Argento's 1984 "see it to believe it" supernatural movie. The non-anamorphic transfer seems to be taken from the same source material as Dragon's dvd. It shows the same dust spots and scratches. digital artefacts are evident, especially when we see shots of the wind tortured forest during the opening shots of the movie. The mastering is a bit better then the Dragon release though. Italian Shock has produced a slightly brighter picture. So, once again, it seems that we have to wait for a release with a decent picture quality!

sound
The soundtrack is a solid Dolby Digital 2.0 track, with no hiss, cracks or distortions to be heard during playback. Anchor Bay's D.D. 5.1 sounds almost the same which only shows the weakness of that said release. The dialogue is clear and cuts through the wild soundtrack.

extras
The animated menu navigates easy while playing some of the soundtracks more moody bits in stereo. You will find a trailer (2,3 minutes). Furthermore there's a slide show with pictures from the movie. A well written essay (in Dutch...) about our favourite director (21 pages) and an equally nice filmography (41 pages).

conclusion
The (only?) main reason to get this version is that it's probably the most economical way of getting the six minutes longer version of Phenomena. The picture quality IS a bit better then the Dragon dvd but the differences are small. The extra scenes (mainly dialogue) were, just as Deep Red, never recorded in english so when these said scenes do hit the screen the soundtrack switches to Italian. Since Dragon's release actually comes with English subtitles I have to recommend this release to the ones of you who are looking for an econimical way of getting the Integral version. Just have in mind that the subtitles are in Dutch only.

As they say in Sweden: "Six more minutes of Phenomena is six more minutes of Phenomena."

reviewed by Mattias Borgh

cover artwork

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