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Released by: Arrow Video
Released on: 3/7/2011
Director: Dario Argento
Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Donald Pleasance, Daria Nicoladi
Year: 1985
The Movie:
Originally released in North America as Creepers, this fan favorite is unique even amongst Argento's unusual filmography. Shot right after Tenebre this film follows a teenage girl named Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly), the daughter of a movie star who heads to Switzerland to attend a private girl's school in the mountains. The school's headmistress, Frau Brí¼ckner (Daria Nicolodi), bunks Jennifer with Sophie (Federica Mastroianni), and the pair hit it off. What Jennifer doesn't know is that recently a tourist woman, Vera Grandt (Fiore Argento), was murdered in the area. Inspector Rudolf Geiger (Patrick Bauchau) found the victim's head. He and his assistant, Kurt (Michele Soavi), brought it to the local entomologist, Dr. John McGregor (Donald Pleasance), who is able to tell how long ago she was killed by examining the maggots that have decided to eat poor Vera's flesh. McGregor is bound to a wheelchair but has a chimpanzee assistant named Inga to help him around the house.
One night Jennifer sleep walks and inadvertently witnesses the murder of a fellow student. She wanders into the woods where Dr. McGregor's chimp finds her and takes her back to her master. McGregor believes that Jennifer may be telepathic. Her memories of the murder she saw are clouded by sleep but she winds up undergoing a series of tests courtesy of the school's doctor. When Sophie winds up the next victim of the killer, a firefly leads Jennifer to a clue that could pinpoint the murderer's identity, but the ridicule she is subjected to at the hands of her fellow students is starting to take its toll on her increasingly fragile psyche. Things come to a boil as Jennifer and McGregor try to uncover the killer's identity and stop him or her from murdering again, but as things progress, Jennifer calls upon her insect friends to help her in a few unorthodox and rather frightening ways.
Likely the most effects intensive film that Argento has ever shot, Phenomena is a genuinely weird film. A strange hybrid of giallo conventions and paranormal insect telepathy, it's truly a picture unlike any other. Connelly is well cast in the lead as she plays her part with a very effective sense of distance and one gets the sense that her character is, in more than one way, very detached from the rest of her fellow students. She's a loner and she's very alienated amongst her peers so it makes sense that this girl who relates so well to insects would get along with an expert in the field. Pleasance is great as McGregor, and while he hams it up in a few scenes he never goes too over the top or even comes close to ruining things. The supporting performances are uniformly strong and well balanced.
Like many of Argento's gialli, the highlights of this film are the murder scenes. A few grisly slashings (created by effects man Sergio Stivaletti) are seen in gory detail but here a couple are given some interesting twists that, to detail, would spoil the film for those yet to see it. The scenes in which Jennifer controls the insects (courtesy of Luigi Cozzi) are also rather remarkable; particularly when you consider that no CGI was used in their creation. The odd soundtrack, composed of tracks from Iron Maiden, Motorhead and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, seems at odds with the score from Simon Boswell and Goblin but it's hard not to think of this film every time you hear Flash Of The Blade.
Not a film for everyone, Phenomena, which is presented here in its longer Italian cut (or, if you prefer, 'Integral' cut) at 116 minutes (the North American 'Creepers' cut of the film is not included), plays better the second or third time around than it does on its initial viewing. Logic dictates that you'll probably spend much of the first go around scratching your head wondering how this all came to be. Once you get over that, it's much easier to appreciate this quirky picture on its own merits and enjoy it for the bizarre ride that it really is.
Video/Audio/Extras:
NOTE: This review is based off of a test disc that may or may not represent finished product and which obviously does not reflect whatever packaging/inserts may be included with finished product.
Phenomena arrives on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer in its original 1.66.1 widescreen aspect ratio. There are a couple of shots that look a little rough (that finale of the opening murder shows some grit, for example - see the first screen cap - and before I get more emails about it, yes I know it's always looked that way and it's to do with the way that scene was shot but that doesn't change the fact that it really stands out) but overall the image is clean even if skin tones look a bit waxy and there appears to have been some digital grain scrubbing here and there. There are bits where the transfer looks great - the close up shots of the insects for example - and bits where it doesn't but the good definitely outweighs the bad by a good margin. There aren't any compression artifacts to note and color reproduction does look very good indeed. Black levels are generally quite deep and strong, it's just a shame that there's that slight waxiness to characters' skin in certain segments. Overall, however, this does definitely offer an upgrade over previous DVD releases. If it's not reference quality, it's still pretty good.
LPCM 2.0 Stereo tracks are offered in Italian and English with optional English subtitles. If you watch the English version, when the segments that were never dubbed in the full length version appear, the disc switches to Italian and English subtitles automatically appear on screen. Regardless, the audio here sounds pretty good. While it would have certainly been nice to see a DTS-HD surround mix included, that didn't happen but the 2.0 tracks do show some strong left to right channel separation and a strong low end, particularly when different parts of the soundtrack kick in (Iron Maiden's Flash Of The Blade sounds particularly good here).
There are three new exclusive featurettes included on this disc, the first of which is a fifty-six minute retrospective documentary entitled Dario's Monkey Business: The Making of Phenomena. Director Dario Argento, actress Daria Nicolodi, and underwater photographer Gianlorenzo Battaglia are all interviewed here and there's some interesting clips and stills used throughout the film to make for a pretty comprehensive look at the making of the picture.
There's also a seven minutes interview with composer Claudio Simonetti entitled Music for Maggots in which he goes into some detail about his work on the film. For some reason there's an audio glitch in this interview where it all comes out of the rear channels instead of the front - is that a test disc issue or will it be replicated on finished product? We'll update if we find out. Otherwise, this is a decent interview with the composer as we talks about his own work on the film and that of the various bands involved in the soundtrack.
There's also a segment with two filmed Q&A sessions, shot in Scotland, with special effects supervisor Sergio Stivaletti where he talks about his work on the picture as well. All three of the featurettes are in high definition. There's also a brief introduction that plays before the film with Stivaletti, in addition to standard menus and chapter selection. For some reason the trailer has not been included on this release.
The Final Word:
Arrow's Blu-ray release of Phenomena sports a good transfer, decent audio and a nice array of exclusive extra features. The movie itself is an odd one and hardly the best of Argento's pictures, but it's certainly an entertaining one.
Click on the images below for full size Blu-ray screen caps!
