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List Price: $39.98 | | Label: Starz / Anchor Bay
Salesrank: 106515
Released: July 10, 2001 |
| Our Price: $38.56 |
| Used Price: $19.49 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Italian horror maestro Dario Argento made his name by turning homicide into modern art with a cinematic flourish, but with Phenomena he takes his stylish mayhem in new directions. The film opens with the dreamy grace of a fairy tale: a young girl wandering the green meadows of Switzerland and discovering a gingerbread house, wherein lives a monster more modern than mythic, a psychopathic maniac who plunges the picture into a lush nightmare. Jennifer (Jennifer Connelly in her first starring role), a gifted young girl at a Swiss school, has a psychic link to the insect world and develops a connection with the killer through midnight sleepwalks. With the help of a lonely, wheelchair-bound entomologist (genre stalwart Donald Pleasence, who inflects his sonorous tenor with a gentle Scottish burr) she turns telekinetic detective, which only draws her closer to the killer's lair. The densely plotted story becomes muddled at times (this is the busiest film in Argento's oeuvre) but the lyrical cinematography and gorgeous nocturnal imagery--dreamy sleepwalks, nightmarish murders, hideous horrors that emerge in the dark of night--take on a poetic elegance not seen in his previous work, providing the tale with a kind of dream logic. This is a slasher film reborn as an exquisitely grim fantasy: Jennifer in Argentoland. --Sean Axmaker
Inferno/Phenomena Reviews:
phenomena 
2009-09-04 - This movie came in EXCELLENT condition and i loved it.
Will do business with this seller again.
Maggots and a Monkey !!! 
2009-08-29 - Argento does it again.
This is a very nice and original
film.
I was concerned about originality
due to the plot description of a
killer targeting private school
girls.
No one's thought of that before,
right?
Well not like this.
No worries.
I am running out of Argento films
left to see, which is very sad.
I look forward so much to experiencing
them for the first time.
Many of his films have a dreamlike
aspect and this is one of those.
It also has those artistic and
cringe-inducing killings/murders.
I ought not give away any of the
plot because it is best to let it
unfold for the first time viewer.
The real treat is not so much the
plot as it is the presentation
which surpasses it.
No surprise there.
Trust me, the ending will not
disappoint.
It is a horror movie fan's banquet.
The only thing that I did not like
was the use of heavy metal vocal
music in the score/soundtrack.
It did it not work for me at all.
It spoiled the mood of the film.
(the same problem exists in the
film "Opera")
It is a bad idea that cost the movie
a star in my review.
The rest of the score
is real genius and perfectly
creates the mood that the image
and plot requires.
Why mess it up?
A highly recommended film for
murder mystery and horror movie
lovers.
solid gold
2009-04-27 - My favorite Argento flick has been re-mastered and uncut by the folks at Anchor Bay. You won't be disappointed.
Argento's Most "Human" film
2009-03-10 - Like most Americans familiar with this work, I remember this film from the 80's video release "Creepers" which while sporting intense and great coverart to help attract rentals, is completely subpar in comparison to this uncut, highly original nightmare! The video and audio have received a much needed remaster and the film feels crisp and new, while retaining all the mysticism Argento intended. I feel it is unnessecary to explain this movie's plot, except to say, if you saw Creepers whether you liked it or not, you NEED to see the original! There are many subplots in this movie, all of which pan out in some way or another. Maybe not to the dynamic degree wanted by some viewers, but adequate enough to fulfill the normal viewer.
The performances are fantastic, the music is great (typical Argento) though musically at times it tends to move in a weird direction, (see: motorhead, iron maiden). The extras have been lovingly researched and offer some rare gems, including an old mid-80s Argento interview on American TV, as well as the pointlessly convoluded videos for both of the film's main songs. All in all the film is a ten, the extras are a ten, I cant find any fault in this.
Argento's best movie after Suspiria
2009-02-24 - I saw this movie in 1986, and back then I didn't even know who Dario Argento was. I was fascinated by the plot, the music, and as a teenager, I developed a crush on Jennifer Connelly.
More than twenty years later, the DVD comes out, and it is hard to believe that I had to wait this long, but hey, this DVD is worth every penny. You buy this, and you will stumble with two music videos, director's comments, and a movie you will never get tired of watching.
