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Phenomena
Price: $72.80 Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
EAN: 0013131072693
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: Starz / Anchor Bay
Languages: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Starz / Anchor Bay
Release Date: March 16, 1999
Running Time: 110 minutes
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Theatrical Release Date: August 02, 1985
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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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Phenomenal
It's been said that "Phenomena" is the movie Argento wanted to make with "Suspiria", the latter being cast with actresses well out of their teens. Here, much younger actresses are used, including Argento's own daughter, Fiore, who has the opening (amazing) death scene. Fourteen year old Jennifer Connelly is our lead, and Argento must have been quite taken with her, as she is lovingly framed and lighted in every scene. There are numerous similarities with "Suspiria". Just as Suzy is chastised ... Read More
Rating: - Pure, B-movie cheeseball goodness
Dario Argento's 'Phenomena' is a a gem of a B-movie with enough engaging and entertaining characteristics to make this film well worth your time if you're into such genre novelties. When you have a film that features a monkey sidekick, a crippled scientific genius, an all-girls boarding school in Europe, Jennifer Connelly in her teenage glory, insect swarms, rotting corpses and a few other surprises the question is - what doesn't this film have? One of Argento's more entertaining films and a decent ... Read More
Rating: - Creative Horror with Unusual Soundtrack
insects, a monkey, Don Pleasence, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, a murderous mutant, and the classic beauty of Jennifer Connelly make this Argento work truly memorable. What are you waiting for?
Rating:  - Not so great
This is not so great movie, but has its own scary moments. If you are looking for some sensible storyline, well, this is not for you. The DVD transfer is very good with enough extra features.
Rating:  - Phenomena
This movie could have benefited from so many things. Acting, Acoustics and Story line were the major shortcomings. When I read the other review, words like dreamlike and 80's classic horror were used. Maybe a hallucination but not dreamlike, and defiantly no classic. I consider the time watching this movie well wasted.
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