There is so much silliness here that I'm kind of surprised I liked this film. It's got a cheesy 80's synth/rock soundtrack, ridiculous aspects to its plot, and hilariously bad acting, though the latter was definitely not coming from Donald Pleasance. And on the other hand, it's got baby-faced Jennifer Connelly at just 15, lots of great creepy crawlie shots, and over-the-top twists that are as fun as they are irrational. It's a kitchen soup of concepts, starting with a girl who can communicate with insects being led to the scene of a murder by a sarcophagus fly which begins reacting to what it smells at great distance. There's a serial killer with a nasty cesspool, a chimpanzee helping a professor who figures prominently, and a cruel headmistress threatening to lock the hero into a mental institution. I was laughing at how bad the script was, cringing at the grisly moments, and joyfully being shocked by the ending sequence, which was crazy. Definitely not a good film, but it's a fun film, if you're in the right mood, which I guess I was.
Review of Phenomena
