Dario Argento's Phenomena (1985)

[MisterJosh85]

Posted: 1/7/22 at 5:06pm

Streaming for free on Tubi. You know what to do.

"Dario Argento’s Phenomena (a.k.a. Creepers) displays what is both the filmmaker’s battiest and most spiritual landscape. (Argento calls Phenomena his favorite film.) The whole of Phenomena is less than the sum of its parts, but the parts are often terrifying and exhilarating. The film’s “Swiss Transylvania” is virtually indistinguishable from any other Argento wonderland. Devoid of cultural markers, the town is the sleepy backdrop for a series of run-ins between insect-loving Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly) and a cast of Argento usual suspects. The film’s opening set piece is legendary: a young schoolgirl misses her countryside bus, seeks refuge inside a mysterious home and butts heads with the film’s faceless, chained-up killer. She flees through a stairwell that leads through a waterfall and is ultimately stabbed and decapitated by the killer. For added effect, her head is ceremoniously thrown into the river below. It’s a vicious moment in an unusually tranquil film that contemplates the existential connection between humans and insects and the rifts between nature and the material world."

Ed Gonzalez on Phenomena