Phenomena (film)

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Phenomena

Theatrical poster to the US release of Phenomena (1985)
Directed by Dario Argento
Produced by Angelo Jacono,
Dario Argento
Written by Dario Argento,
Franco Ferrini
Starring Jennifer Connelly
Daria Nicolodi
Dalila Di Lazzaro
Donald Pleasance
Patrick Bauchau
Music by Claudio Simonetti
Fabio Pignatelli
Bill Wyman
Simon Boswell
Cinematography Romano Albani
Editing by Franco Fraticelli
Distributed by Titanus
New Line Cinema (USA, theatrical)
Anchor Bay Entertainment (USA, DVD)
Release date(s) January 31, 1985 (Italy) August 2, 1985 (USA)
Running time 110 min
Edited version:
82min
Country Flag of Italy Italy
Language Italian
German
English
Budget $3,800,000 (estimated)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Phenomena is a 1985 Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento. An edited version of the film was released in the United States under the title Creepers.

Jennifer Connelly stars as a young girl who arrives at an eerie Swiss boarding school where the students are being butchered by a vicious serial killer. With the help of a wheelchair-bound scientist, played by Donald Pleasence, she discovers she has special powers, and uses them to pursue the killer before she becomes the next victim. It was Argento's first film to be shot in English, although only the scenes of Connelly and Pleasance together were shot sync sound.

Argento himself stated: "Phenomena was inspired by something I heard about insects being used to solve crimes, and because insects have always fascinated me I began to make a story around this idea. You know, it's a terrible thing, but there are many insects that are disappearing. Becoming extinct. But most people only want to kill them. You know, insects have souls, too; they're telepathic... amazing. People want to save the whales and dolphins, but nobody wants to save the insects. I'm a vegetarian, because I don't want to kill things to eat."

Contents

[edit] Plot

A lost tourist, Vera Grandt (Fiore Argento), is beheaded in the Swiss countryside. Her head is found by Inspector Rudolf Geiger (Patrick Bauchau) and his assistant, Kurt (Michele Soavi), who take it to entomologist John McGregor (Donald Pleasance). He estimates the time of death by examining the maggots.

Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly), insect-loving daughter of a movie star, arrives at the Swiss Richard Wagner Academy for Girls, chaperoned by Frau Brückner (Daria Nicolodi), who places her with roommate Sophie (Federica Mastroianni). While sleepwalking, Jennifer witnesses a student being slain. She awakens and falls, ending up lost in the woods. She is discovered by Inga (Tanga), McGregor's chimpanzee attendant, and brought to him. He believes her to have a special gift for telepathy. Jennifer's memories of the murder she witnessed are vague, and a brain scan by the school doctor (Antonio Maimone) is not helpful in addressing her sleepwalking.

After Sophie is killed, a firefly guides Jennifer to a maggot-covered glove. Back in the school, when the students taunt Jennifer for her connection to insects, she summons a swarm of flies to the school, which cover the whole building. In an attempt to find the killer, McGregor gives her a living specimen of the Great Sarcophagus fly, which is drawn to decaying human flesh. The fly leads her to the abandoned house where Vera Grandt was attacked, attracted by a severed hand.

One night McGregor is murdered. Jennifer no longer wants to stay at the school, so she goes to stay at Frau Brückner's house. After numerous red herrings, Jennifer realizes that Frau Brückner has given her poisonous pills, and purges the pill out. Brückner locks her in a room, but Jennifer discovers a tunnel leading underneath the house to a dungeon. She is suddenly grabbed by Inspector Geiger, who has been chained up to the wall. Frightened, she backs away from his mutilated appearance and falls into a pool full of decaying, maggot infested bodies. With Geiger's help Jennifer escapes.

In the basement, she finds Brückner's small son, Patua (Davide Marotta), with a hideously deformed face. He chases Jennifer onto a motorboat, but she manages to escape his attempts to kill her by summoning a swarm of flies to devour his face, leaving him drowning in the lake. On the shore, she is greeted by her father's assistant Morris Shapiro (Mario Donatone), who came to help after an earlier telephone call. He is immediately decapitated by a deranged Brückner, using a piece of sharpened sheet metal. In the final confrontation between Brückner and Jennifer, Brückner is suddenly attacked and killed by Inga with a straight razor.

[edit] Distribution

For its US release, Phenomena was retitled as Creepers and heavily edited to remove nearly thirty minutes of footage. The murder sequences were shortened by several seconds to remove gore, a sequence where the second victim is spotted and chased by the killer was removed, and two lengthy scenes (which make up the bulk of the missing footage) involving Jennifer Connelly's character telling her roommate the story about how her mother abandoned the family on Christmas Day (as Argento's own mother had done) and her character receiving a brain scan after the second murder were removed for the purposes of speeding up the flow of the film.

Anchor Bay released the film to DVD in 1999; restoring the film's proper name and restoring all missing scenes from the original US release. The original film (or Integral cut) of the film is available in Europe, on Region 2 DVD. The Integral cut (or Integral Hard, as it is known in Japan) never existed in English, but only in the dubbed Italian version, and adds only a few seconds of cut footage to some scenes, mostly of B roll material.[1]

[edit] Soundtrack

The film's score features music by Goblin, Bill Wyman, Andi Sexgang, Iron Maiden and Motörhead. Goblin, by this time, consisted only of Claudio Simonetti and Fabio Pignatelli.

Some pieces are exclusively composed for this film, e.g.:

  • "Phenomena" by Claudio Simonetti
  • "Jennifer" by Goblin
  • "Sleepwalking" by Goblin

Some songs are taken from other releases, e.g.:

  • "Locomotive" performed by Motörhead
  • "Flash of the Blade" performed by Iron Maiden

There have been several soundtrack albums released with different track listings[1].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Video Watchdog #50.

[edit] External links