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Released by: Synapse Films
Released on: March 14th, 2023.
Director: Dario Argento
Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Donald Pleasance, Daria Nicoladi, Federica Mastroianni¸ Fiore Argento
Year: 1985
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Phenomena – Movie Review:
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 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.
Note that this two disc set includes the one hundred and sixteen minute original Italian version of the film one disc one as well as the one hundred and ten minute International cut and the eighty-three minute U.S. “Creepers” cut of the movie on disc two.
Phenomena – UHD Review:
Phenomena arrives on two disc UHD set from Synapse Films in an HVEC encoded 2160p utilizing “new 4K restorations of all three versions of Phenomena” with HDR10 and Dolby Vision enhancement. Picture quality is, in a word, impressive. We get truly excellent detail evident throughout, and the improvement in color reproduction is very noticeable throughout the movie. Skin tones look properly lifelike in pretty much every frame, while black levels are nice and deep while avoiding crush and compression artifact issues. The image always looks like a proper film-sourced transfer, showing no noticeable problems with digital noise reduction or edge enhancement. At the same time, while the image does retain a proper amount of film grain, it is pretty much spotless in that there really isn’t any print damage or dirt evident anywhere during playback. It’s hard to imagine Phenomena looking much better than it does here.
There are quite a few audio options offered up here. The Italian cut on disc one features a 24-bit Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 stereo soundtracks, derived from the original 4-channel Dolby Stereo elements as well as a 24-bit English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that occasionally automatically switches over to Italian for a few short bits that weren’t ever dubbed into English. The international version gets 24-bit English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 stereo soundtracks derived from the original 4-channel Dolby Stereo elements as well as a rare alternate 24-bit DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo mix featuring different sound effects and music cues. The Creepers version gets 24-bit English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono and 2.0 'stereo music version' options, mastered from the original 3 track DME magnetic mix. Optional English subtitles are provided for the Italian track and an English SDH options is provided for the English language tracks. Sound quality, overall, is very strong here as well. The 5.1 tracks do a really strong job of spreading around the effects work (you’ll notice this very evidently in the insect swarm scenes) and the music into the rear channels to help build atmosphere. There are no problems with any hiss or distortion and the levels are always nicely balanced.
Extras are spread across the two discs in this set as follows:
Disc One:
First up is an audio commentary by Troy Howarth that does a really nice job of putting all of this into context, exploring and explaining how the movie plays with what most would consider to be typical giallo tropes to create something pretty unique in the genre. Along the way, he details where Argento’s career was at this point, offers up plenty of biographical information on the key cast and crew members often times elaborating on their specific relationships with the director, goes over the effects and soundtrack work and offers plenty of information on the film’s production history.
From there, dig into the 2017 documentary Of Flies And Maggots produced by Arrow Films, running two hours in length. In here you’ll find interviews with Dario Argento, Fiore Argento, Davide Marotta, Daria Nicoladi, Fiorenza Tassari, Franco Ferrini, Romano Albani, Angelo Iacono, Luigi Cozzi, Sergio Stivaletti, Pier Antonio Maracci, Gianlorenzo Battaglia, Claudio Simonetti and Simon Boswell. As you'd expect, given its running time, this documentary is very in-depth. It covers a whole lot of ground, such as where Argento got his initial ideas from for the story, how the various participants did and didn't always get along while the movie was made (Argento's relationship with Nicoladi wasn't exactly easy going at this point), casting decisions, what went into creating the different effects set pieces that stand as highlights of the film, the score and some of the different musical selections that are used throughout the picture, specifics of how and why certain scenes wound up being shot the way they were, the occasional difficulties involvedin dealing with live insects on set, how the movie was received and lots more. In addition to the loads of interview footage included here, we also get pertinent clips from the film used for obvious reasons as well as some nice behind the scenes footage showing what it was like on set. This is extremely well done and is pretty much the final work on the history of and making of Phenomena.
Winding things up on the first disc are original and Italian language theatrical trailers, a music video for the song ‘Jennifer’ directed by Dario Argento, a Japanese pressbook gallery, menus and chapter selection options.
Disc Two:
Extras on disc two start off with an audio commentary over the International version from Argento biographer Derek Botelho (author of The Argento Syndrome) and film historian David Del Valle that covers quite a bit of ground. This is a solid mix of behind the scenes details and trivia as well as critical insight. The two men talk up the performances in the film, the stylish murder set pieces, the score and the soundtrack selections, some of the locations used in the picture, the cinematography as well as some of the themes that are explored in this and other Argento pictures.
Up next is The Three Sarcophagi, a thirty-one visual essay by Arrow Films producer Michael McKenzie that does a pretty deep dive into the differences between the three cuts of the movie. It’s a pretty interesting and extremely thorough piece that really does offer up everything you’d want to know about the differences between the three versions and why they exist in the first place, sometimes getting into distinctions so minute that they literally amount to a couple of frames.
Finishing up disc two are a theatrical trailer for Creepers, a few U.S. radio spots, menus and chapter selection options.
This release also comes with some nice double sided cover sleeve art, and the first pressing of this edition comes with a limited edition slipcover.
Phenomena - The Final Word:
Phenomena is definitely one of Argento’s quirkiest horror offerings but it’s a weirdly creative and engaging film well-worth seeking out thanks to the impressive manifestation of some interesting ideas and a really strong cast. The UHD release from Synapse Films provides the film with a gorgeous presentation, really solid audio options, three cuts of the movie and a nice array of extra features. Highly recommended!