Sixteen Further Screams For Halloween: Day 5 (Phenomena)

The lady who loved insects.

We all deserve a little giallo, as a treat. Dario Argento is not a filmmaker I have seen much of, this film marking only my second encounter with him. That being said, my first brush with Argento was Suspiria, and that movie fucking ruled. Just a sea of bright colors, lurid murder, ancient witches, and 70's progressive rock. Better times with horror movies are few and far between. This isn't even my first time seeing Phenomena, as I was drawn to watch it back in May or so because of its lead and its premise, about which more in a second. It lurked in the back of my mind since then, it has just as much incredible power as it did in May, and now we get to talk about it.

There are immaculate fucking vibes coming off of this movie, a perfect balance of black and white. Phenomena can be serene, utopian, and transcendental in its essence. It can also be a howling abyss of misery, misunderstand, and murder most foul. Indeed, the movie opens like that, a perfect fever pitch that's its own horror movie in miniature, lush green Swiss hills leading to a lonely house, an unseen beast, blood and stabbing and shattered glass and decapitation following in its wake. Amidst this darkness there is light, and look upon the radiance that is Jennifer Connelly in this motion picture. I cannot gush enough about her in this role; she is fucking perfect. As Jennifer Corvino, she's the mysterious transfer student with one foot in dreams, sleepwalking her way into the darkness afoot and getting involved. Oh, and let's not forget, she can commune with insects. The key balance of the movie is laid out right before us in Connelly's first scene. She's in a car driving to the school with the woman who will eventually be revealed as one of the film's killers. A bee is in the car with them. Frau Bruckner insists that the bee be killed. Jennifer protests and pleads to not kill the bug, letting it pitch on her finger and treating it with empathy and kindness. Thoughtless murder vs. quiet empathy and understanding. Bam. The heart of the motion picture, right there, and you'd never know it until you're sitting there after the fact.

Everything to do with Jennifer and insects in this movie is phenomenal, if you'll pardon the almost pun. I can think of any scene and it invokes this quiet awe in me. The lone firefly in the dead of night leading her to a clue. The bit where the other girls of the school tease her for saying she can talk to bugs, leading to her summoning a swarm to surround the school as she says she loves them all. Getting the help of the Great Sarcophagus to find the house from the opening. Bugs may creep and crawl over every frame of the movie, and maggots are a particular harbinger of the darker side of this horror movie looming over proceedings, but the insects are never used as a thing of horror. They are on her side, and in the climax of the movie they offer their aid. Special mention also needs to be given to Donald Pleasance, no stranger to horror movies as he plays a Scottish entomologist whom Jennifer befriends. He also has a monkey. This fucking monkey is used as one of the greatest Chekov's gun firings I've ever seen. Holy shit.

The entire climax of this movie goes hard, the last half hour packed with daring escapes, a pool of dead bodies, the deformed miniature killer getting ripped apart by flies, fire and explosions, and more shock decapitations before the final end comes. Bizarrely parts of it are underscored by Iron Maiden. It's the 80's, hair metal is in. By God, it fits somehow, and the Italian prog rock noodling is still there, oh so memorable. I don't know what else to say about the film itself. It's a movie perfectly balancing yin and yang, and you don't see a lot of the lighter side of human nature in a horror film like this. I'm glad it's there. Like Nausicaa before her, Jennifer endures much hardship while communing with the natural order to make things better than they were before, even if that means encountering the worst of humanity. Before we close, one final fact of note: this movie is basically the inspiration for Clock Tower. The protagonist named Jennifer, the little guy who's a killer, even the scissors that the Scissorman in Clock Tower uses are in the opening of the movie. So, not only is this a great film, but it inspired one of the first survival horror games.

Ain't that neat?