Monday, September 17, 2012

Phenomena (Dario Argento, 1985)


 For me Phenomena marks boundary of Dario’s masterpieces and just good ones. True, it was impossible for maestro to keep up the pace of Deep Red, Suspiria, Tenebre, … and Phenomena is not bad at all, it’s just … well … only good. 

It’s been years since I’ve last seen it so I didn’t hesitate for a second when I saw uncut Arrow DVD release in a local Tower Records selling for a mere 7 euro. Sometimes you find a cool new shit in a movie when watching it again after long time. Not this one and not this time I’m afraid – Phenomena is still just good :)

So what exactly is good? Without a doubt chimpanzee with a razor blade is a fucking winner, Jennifer Connelly is good as a cool and not at all cry baby like terrified brat, killing of Daria Nicolodi is (once again) great and it’s of course always nice to see Donald Pleasence.

Not so good: a little bit of Suspiria rip-off, definitely too long, story too weird and fairy tale-ish and surreal at the same time, uneven pace as it starts slowly as a Giallo and ends as bizarre and too violent/gory horror .

7/10

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