Phenomena (1985)

Directed by Dario Argento [Other horror films: L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo (1970), Il gatto a nove code (1971), 4 mosche di velluto grigio (1971), Profondo rosso (1975), Suspiria (1977), Inferno (1980), Tenebre (1982), Opera (1987), Due occhi diabolici (1990, segment ‘The Black Cat’), Trauma (1993), La sindrome di Stendhal (1996), Il fantasma dell’opera (1998), Non ho sonno (2001), Il cartaio (2003), Ti piace Hitchcock? (2005), La terza madre (2007), Giallo (2009), Dracula 3D (2012), Occhiali neri (2022)]

Earlier this month, I watched Tenebre for the first time, leaving Phenomena as one of Dario Argento’s most popular works that I’d not yet seen, and now that I have, I can say that Phenomena was a very solid time, which, if I’m being honest, sort of surprised me.

It’s not that I was expecting to hate it, but I thought mixing in some subplot of the central character being able to control insects (which isn’t exactly what’s going on, but my limited knowledge of the film did lead to that misconception) would be too off-putting. Well, as my parents said, I’m wrong 95% of the time, and so was the case here, as this was a delightfully fun film for it’s hour and 50 minute runtime, partially due to the solid performances.

Jennifer Connelly (Dark Water) did a fantastic job as the lead, and her character was wonderfully brave and strong throughout the film. Of course, seeing Donald Pleasence (Halloween, The Flesh and the Fiends, The Mutations) warmed my bitter heart, and seeing him with a monkey was even better. Other than these two, both Daria Nicolodi (Deep Red) and Federica Mastroianni did well also.

The story here was about what you’d expect from a giallo – mysterious killings are happening in Switzerland, and insects lead to identifying the killer. Okay, well, the second part might be more unique, and I was skeptical myself, but I dug how they approached it (because if Pleasence was involved, how could it be a bad idea?), and though the movie is a lengthy one, it never really felt like it was dragging at all.

Also, the soundtrack is killer. I’ll be honest – when I saw both Iron Maiden and Motörhead among the “special musical artists,” in the opening credits, I wasn’t sure. I love Iron Maiden, but I didn’t know if their music would suit a movie like this, and again, I was wrong, as the soundtrack is just excellent, especially the piece titled ‘Phenomena’ by Claudio Simonetti, which is just insanely catchy, and definitely going onto my iTunes.

I will say I made a mistake attempting to eat during portions of the film. Somewhat early on, police detectives brought a rather maggotty decomposed head to be examined, and it didn’t shy away from showing the head in detail. In fact, larvae and maggots were a common sight, especially toward the end – that bathroom scene was hard enough, what with maggots on a bar of soap and a towel – and especially with that pit. You know the pit. I know the pit, and I wish I didn’t. In fact, I’ll go ahead and say I’d rather be thrown into the syringe pit in Saw II rather than the pit at the end of Phenomena.

So yeah, the movie can be a bit off-putting at times, but it never fails to be entertaining, and given the length of the film, the fact that it never once felt as though it was dragging is an impressive feat itself. The kills were somewhat scarce at times, but when they did pop up, we got some quality decapitations and stabbings, and though it’s not as impressive as past Argento works, it wasn’t shabby whatsoever.

In fact, I think this ranks pretty highly for me when it comes to the films I’ve seen by Dario Argento. I still need to see some of his films, of course – The Bird in the Crystal Plumage, The Cat o’Nine Tails, and The Stendhal Syndrome are among them. I’ve seen most of his major works, though, and I think this is pretty good. It may not be as flashy as Suspiria, but I liked the plot more. Tenebre is a movie I personally expected to like more than I did (I enjoyed it, but I was hoping to love it), and though I’d usually enjoy the straight-up giallo more, Phenomena had a better finale.

All of this is to say that among the Argento works I’ve seen, I think Phenomena is my second-favorite. Let’s be real – I gave Deep Red a 10/10, so that’d be exceptionally difficult to beat. Phenomena is a great movie, though, and I enjoyed it far more than I’d have anticipated.

8.5/10