Falling somewhere in the middle of Argento's downward slope from the heights of Profondo Rosso and Suspiria to the lows of Giallo and Dracula, Phenomena walks the edge between decent and mediocre, with the genuinely dreadful soundtrack pushing it towards the latter. Seriously, what was THAT? It's so inappropriate, it seems like a parody: it reminds me of the Shaun of the Dead sketch with the annoyed zombie switching off the heavy metal music on the car stereo.
At this point of his career Argento had already lost his spark of cinematic genius, but was still dishing out semi-watchable stuff - although I can't recommend Phenomena to anyone but Argento completists.
This lackluster supernatural thriller set in an all-female boarding room in the Swiss countryside (kind of a lousy remake of Suspiria) is notable for starring a 14 years old Jennifer Connelly. Born in 1970, when Argento made his debut with The Birds of the Crystal Plumage, given by the Italian director her first leading role here, Connelly would rise to an Academy Award in 2001, the same year Argento made his first truly terrible movie, Non Ho Sonno.
Connelly had part of a finger bitten off by her chimpanzee co-star while filming. Chimpanzee co-star? Yeah, it's that kind of movie.
Donald Pleasence plays an entomologist / mentor figure; he made several appearances in Italian cinema in those years. To its credit, Phenomena *is* better than the most infamous of those, The Puma Man.
5/10
At this point of his career Argento had already lost his spark of cinematic genius, but was still dishing out semi-watchable stuff - although I can't recommend Phenomena to anyone but Argento completists.
This lackluster supernatural thriller set in an all-female boarding room in the Swiss countryside (kind of a lousy remake of Suspiria) is notable for starring a 14 years old Jennifer Connelly. Born in 1970, when Argento made his debut with The Birds of the Crystal Plumage, given by the Italian director her first leading role here, Connelly would rise to an Academy Award in 2001, the same year Argento made his first truly terrible movie, Non Ho Sonno.
Connelly had part of a finger bitten off by her chimpanzee co-star while filming. Chimpanzee co-star? Yeah, it's that kind of movie.
Donald Pleasence plays an entomologist / mentor figure; he made several appearances in Italian cinema in those years. To its credit, Phenomena *is* better than the most infamous of those, The Puma Man.
5/10