Being Film #3 for Hooptober 2023
Man, there is just something about Dario Argento. Excepting The Five Days (only because I haven’t seen it) his run of films from 1970’s The Bird With the Crystal Plumage up to 1996’s The Stendhal Syndrome (I’m giving a soft pass to 93’s Trauma because I barely remember it) is remarkable, full of style and crazy ideas, with running motifs that touch everything he did, including his production efforts. Bridging both his exquisite giallo excursions with his supernatural frights is Phenomena, starring Jennifer Connelly as a woman trying to solve the brutal murders of young girls around a prestigious school for girls in Switzerland. Sound vaguely familiar, Suspiria worshippers? Sure, but this time she has an alley. Or should I say millions of allies. It’s been years since I’ve watched it, but on the occasion of the gorgeous 4K special edition with both the original Italian and International versions (as well as the significantly edited US/UK “Creepers” cut, which is what I first saw as a kid), it was time to revisit this mid-period Argento classic.
THE QUICK SUMMARY: While her movie star father is away, Jennifer Corvino is sent to a fancy boarding school for young women. But wouldn’t you know it, not only do all the girls tease her about her famous dad and her penchant for sleepwalking, but there’s a nasty killer going around in black leather gloves (in an Argento film?! NO WAY!!) killing young ladies who happen to stray from the correct path. It’s a good thing then that we discover Jennifer has psychic abilities that let her communicate with insects. She’s going to need all the help she can get unless she wants to be the killer’s next victim. Oh, did I mention Donald Pleasance plays a crippled scientist specializing in insects…AND HE HAS A CHIMPANZEE FOR A BUTLER?! If you think Argento isn’t going to use that in exciting and gory ways, you’ve never seen an Argento film, have you?
Let’s get technical first. I watched the original Italian version which ran at 116 minutes. The 4K transfer is exceptional, with the colors and black deep and rich, especially the scenes of the Swiss hills and mountains, and a classic Argento shot that follows Connelly’s hand through a thicket of bushes as she find a glove that belongs to the killer. It’s that shot more than anything else in Phenomena that has stuck with me all these years: it encapsulates everything I love about Argento’s style. Anyone else (except John Carpenter, who mimics this kind of shot to lovely effect in Prince of Darkness) would have simply focused on finding the clue and being done with it. Not Argento, who luxuriates in the tracking shot, lighting the branches and Jennifer’s hand in the most unnatural way imaginable, but simultaneously in the most effective way to show the importance of the find. Everything I love about Argento is in that shot.
The rest of the film isn’t too shabby, either. All the touchstones of his work in giallo are there: decapitations, novel weapons, a soundtrack by Goblin (although this time we get Iron Maiden and Motörhead as well), and Daria Nicolodi in a featured role. Jennifer Connelly had only done Once Upon a Time in America before this, but she’s confident and assured in her role as the young woman with super bug powers. Argento really puts her through her paces: she has to swim in a lake of fire, act opposite Donald Pleasance AND a chimpanzee (who supposedly bit off a piece of her finger) and handle a LOT of bugs. For his part Donald Pleasance is Donald Pleasance, and I love that, so it all works.
Going into Phenomena, or any Argento film for that matter expecting to figure out the mystery based on the clues present in the film is a fool’s errand. Go for the visuals, the dream logic, and the chimpanzee wielding a razor blade. What…you thought I wasn’t going to mention the razor blade?
Cinema Dual 
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