One of my all time favorites.

Excellent, a Must See

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

"Phenomena" has Jennifer Connelly, (in her first film after working on Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon A Time In America'), as a teenager who arrives at a Swiss boarding school where the students are being stalked by a serial killer. She discovers she has special psychic powers, and uses them to pursue the killer. 'Phenomena' is Argento returning to 'Suspiria' and 'Inferno', yet infusing it with 'Giallo,' and coming up with one of his more unusual pieces. While the Swiss setting is devoid of any cultural markers (no hint of Hitchcock in use of locale), Argento presents one of his finest opening set-pieces. In a country setting a girl misses her bus and seeks refuge inside a mysterious home, there she collides with the film's faceless chained-up killer. Fleeing through a waterfall she is ultimately stabbed and decapitated by the killer. It's a vicious sequence from an unusually tranquil film that dabbles with the idea of nature having more power over us than we realise. Jennifer loves insects and is a somnambulist, and whilst sleepwalking witnesses a murder and therefore becomes a target of the film's faceless killer. While lost in the woods, she meets John and his monkey and connects with insects near and far. Like a wayward Gretel she is led into Argento's fairy-tale forest by a glowing insect; Argento cuts to an insect's POV, splitting the frame into segments, showcasing his obsession with the eye, sight and sightlessness. There may be no logical connection between the film's killings and Jennifer's gift, but that does not detract from the fact that this is one very unique film. 'Phenomena' was released in the United States in an edited version under the title of 'Creepers', continuing Argento's lack of any meaningful success in the United States since 'Suspiria'.

The opening sequences in Phenomena are a true testament to a dying art of film-making cinematography by capitalizing on an area's landscape. The mountain background and cold atmosphere provided a chilling bleak outlook for the character left behind by a tour bus. Argento's craft is driving a thrilling story full with brutally graphic kill scenes but also masterfully suspending the monster or true horror for the climax. Pheonomena is a perfect example of this blueprint, keeping the viewer completely engaged with odd insect sequences, horrifying kill scenes, all while keeping the mystery alive to the very end. It's also interesting to watch the mixture of English speaking actors, Connelly the American, Pleasance being British along with a host of Italian actors. The dubbing is noticeable but Argento managed to make this a non-issue by off- camera shots and solid editing. There are some corny, unneeded aspects of the story and the ending could have finished more eloquently but it's still a superb, must-watch horror film.

I know Dario Argento by name, but don't think I've ever actually watched any of his movies. PHENOMENA is one of his most well known films, probably because it stars a 14-year old Jennifer Connelly, just before her breakthrough in LABYRINTH.The film is pretty terrible and all its elements are wrong: Bad pacing, bad direction, awful acting by the entire cast without exception (even Donald Pleasence can't help this film), bad ADR, bad editing, bad camera-work, awful inappropriate music. It's not only boring and moves extremely slowly, but everything about it feels completely unnatural. The combination of terrible acting, direction, editing and dialogue makes the film extremely uncomfortable to watch.Jennifer was - and still is - one of the most beautiful women on the planet, but her acting ability is limited in this movie (her first lead role, and her second acting role overall after a tiny role in ONCE UPON A TIME IN America). It took her some time to develop and become a real actress. The terrible direction in this movie didn't help either.

This bizarro horror outing from Dario Argento is a cut above the rest thanks to sheer originality alone. Argento blends in lots of different elements into his movie to create one wild, fantastic ride with plenty of weird stuff going on that you won't see anywhere else. While the first hour is a little slow, the film keeps you watching throughout thanks to some effective music (aside from that intrusive Iron Maiden stuff), some gorgeous Swiss landscapes, and the unpredictably of the murder-mystery type plot. Echoes of SUSPIRIA are present at the beginning of the film but this quickly becomes something a lot different; it may not be as horrific but the over-the-top ending is certainly up there with the best of Argento's output.A 14 year-old Jennifer Connelly takes the lead role as Jennifer, an American girl whose actor father is away working in the Philippines, so she is sent to some boarding school in Zurich populated by cruel schoolgirls (in one CARRIE-inspired scene, their taunting results in a major supernatural event occurring) and an even crueller headmistress, played with relish by Dalila Di Lazzaro. Connelly's character is an odd one, you see, who goes out sleepwalking at night in one bizarre and confused sequence (she first witnesses a murder, then is hit by a car and finally finds herself lost in the woods) and also has a telepathic link to insects (there's something you don't see very often).It wouldn't be an Argento film without the giallo aspects, and sure enough there's also a black-gloved murderer lurking around to kill off some schoolgirls in graphically gory fashions. Indeed the opening of PHENOMENA is a classic Argento set-piece as a girl is stabbed through the hand and escapes to a waterfall, where she is killed by a pair of scissors and her head decapitated by falling glass to roll gracefully down the waterfall in one of Argento's flamboyant violence-as-art sequences. Other horrific and fantastic aspects include lots of maggot-ridden bodies everywhere, huge swarms of flies which buzz down and attack (an elaborate effect involving coffee grains being poured into a water tank, achieved by Luigi Cozzi), Connelly following a firefly through the woods, a briefly-seen-but-still-creepy doll like the one in DEEP RED and a handcuffed prisoner who breaks his own thumb to escape. The excellent ending has some great horror sequences like where Connelly falls into a pit full of rotting body parts and maggots, a chase by a mutant child (a dwarf in a Sergio Stivaletti mask), a lake on fire, some underwater antics involving a mutilated corpse, and a surprise decapitation.The icing on the cake comes when Connelly is saved by the unexpected hero of the movie - a chimpanzee carrying a razor! Yep, the kindly chimp is one of the main characters in the film and his gory, vengeful attack on the killer is a startling sequence and one of the coolest finales in an Argento movie I've seen. The supporting cast includes meaty roles for Agento regular Daria Nicolodi as a family friend with a hidden secret, and Donald Pleasence (complete with a Scottish accent) as a wheelchair-bound professor who helps Connelly in her quest. Fans of Italian horror may also spot Michele Soavi in a one-scene cameo as a cop. PHENOMENA is a fine Argento movie, possibly not his best but up there as ONE of his best, complete with as many unexpected plot twists and turns as you would expect, a mystery killer, plenty of violence, and some fantastic aspects involving intelligent insects. A jolly good show.