| Author | Message | ||
     Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Watched this Dario Argento movie for the first time at the weekend, with some trepidation, given its less than admired reputation, and found myself awed, once more, by the sheer virtuosity of the man! I thought this was magnificent, completely insane, full throttle horror entertainment, with the same disjointed, nightmarish quality as 'Suspiria' or 'Inferno', stunning cinematography - making great use of the Swiss Alpine setting - and a couple of brilliant eye-rolling performances from Donald Pleasance & Daria Nicolodi, with the added bonus of a very young, and eerily beautiful, Jennifer Connelly, acquitting herself well, and the single greatest animal performance I have ever seen on screen, from Tanga the chimp – it really does have to be seen to be believed! At a stroke, this blast of video nasty era brilliance has reduced every other horror movie I’ve seen in recent years to insipid mediocrity. The last half hour in particular is a tour-de-force of nerve-shredding suspense sequences, jump-out–of–your-skin scares and totally outrageous gore effects. The plot makes no sense whatsoever, something about; headless corpses, sleepwalking, psychic insects, mad wheelchair-bound scientists, homicidal dwarfs and a vengeance seeking monkey – but that’s not the point, and Argento knows it. This is all about thrilling, scaring, disorienting and grossing out the audience by the sheer bravura skill and beautiful craftsmanship of a true one-off auteur, firing on all cylinders. My faith in what can be accomplished in the realms of horror cinema has been completely restored after watching this… Following his masterpiece, ‘Tenebrae’ (1982), and coming before the equally stunning, ‘Opera’ (1987), I can safely say that Dario Argento was on fire at this stage of his career imho. Anyone else have any thoughts on this criminally overlooked classic? | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 81.152.74.159 |
Two very enthusiastic thumbs up from Probert Towers, Stevie, for all the reasons you mention. Its complete bonkers-ness is part of its magic and we both adore it. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.233.173 |
Thumbs up from me too! | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 220.138.162.53 |
I've always thought it was one of his more underrated films. I loved it when it first came out (saw it on the big screen back in the early 80s) and was surprised by how many bad reviews it got then and continued to receive over the years. It was a big hit in Asia, at least (especially Japan). | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Couldn't agree more, Kate, it's easily the best horror film I've seen in years - a pure demented joy. One of those films that had me squirming with delight, and the lady I watched it with was most appreciative as well! I haven't heard a woman squeal like that in a long time... the plunge into the slimy pit, yeck!  Is there even such a creature as the Great Sarcophagus... and what were those ladybirds up to? Were the insects in cahoots with the chimp? I really need to know... | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Hey, there is... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesh-fly Respect! | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
This was always near the bottom of my Argento 'to-watch' pile, as the magazines I read as a teenager generally didn't rate it. So I only just watched it for the first time a couple of months ago and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Argento at his most deranged. Sleuth insects! Bizarre murder weapons! Razor-wielding chimps! How can you not love a film that concludes its first scene with a severed head tumbling down a waterfall? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
The heavily truncated American version of this is as bad as a lot of the reviews say, but the uncut version is indeed a bonkers delight. It's always been one of my personal favourites of Argento's, along with Inferno and Tenebrae. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.152.74.159 |
I remember when Phenomena came out in the UK, heavily cut, retitled as Creepers and slapped on the bottom half of a double bill with Tom Holland's Frightnight for a quick circuit of London before being dumped on home video. On Film 85 Michael Parkinson's review consisted of him recommending that Donald Pleasance use his salary from the movie to buy every existing print of it and burn it. It was YEARS before I got to see an uncut print and I LOVE IT!!!!! | ||
| Joelmurr (Joelmurr) Username: Joelmurr Registered: 04-2010 Posted From: 82.169.25.44 |
It's awesome. I saw the US version first, unfortunately, and didn't think I'd ever revisit it - but seeing the bloody thing uncut years later was a treat. When Argento's on form, you really do feel you're in the hands of a madman. A chimp with a straight razor? The absurd bit where Connelly crawls after the telephone? Brilliant - hits me below the thinking level. Doesn't even matter that the dialogue is occasionally even more appalling than the violence ... | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 220.138.164.189 |
The version I saw first was the uncut version, thankfully. A year or so later I saw a videotape of Creepers in a shop when I returned to the UK and didn't realise, until closer inspection, that it was the same film! Jennifer Connelly has certainly grown quite a bit since her early roles in Phenomena and Labyrinth (a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, I admit). I have a signed picture of her from the set of Phenomena, and a load of lobby cards and posters for early Argento films, including a Demons one signed by the great man himself. I went a bit crazy collecting this kind of stuff in the '80s... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.237.131 |
Yes, it's hard to believe PHENOMENA and this movie are one-degree separated (thanks to Jennifer Connelly).... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TuvhHqmp4o (Okay, this trailer is AWFUL. I mean, worst I've seen in a long time. And we all know trailers are better than their movies. So this movie's gotta be one giant steaming gooey turd.) | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
What do you expect from Ron Howard... it does look particularly nauseating, even for him. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 81.152.74.159 |
We were inspired to watch this again last night and it was an utter delight. I love the way Jennifer's friendly little bee that won't sting her is desperately trying to do exactly that and would too if they hadn't trimmed his little weapon. "We worship you! We worship you!" "I love you all. I love every one of you." BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Completely brilliantly barking mad. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
That was a good scene but is beaten in the bumble bee performance stakes by a certain scene in 'Grizzly Man' - my favourite insect moment in cinema of all time. But what about what that even friendlier little beetle was desperate to do to her... and to think it squirted in Donald's eye, yipes!! I must watch the DVD interviews when I get home to see if they can shed any light on what substances Argento was partaking of when he made this.  | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.152.74.159 |
While watching PHENOMENA we thought a different title might be more appropriate. Here's what the poster might say: SEE a girl take her pet fly for a bus ride! SEE a monkey standing next to a bin drinking milk from a carton! SEE a psychotic lady teacher cover up the mirrors in her house even though her deformed son is FAR TOO SHORT TO LOOK IN THEM!!! SEE Dario Argento's "ONE DAFT THING AFTER ANOTHER" Rated S for Silly | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
It's daftness to the power of ten. | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
The crowning moment of daftness for me is the Deus Ex Chimpanzee in the final scene. | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 217.35.242.120 |
>>What do you expect from Ron Howard... it does look particularly nauseating, even for him.<< You know the way Hitchcock had a little walk on role for himself in all of his movies? Well, does Ron Howard do the same only using his jobbing brother Clint (Gentle Ben) Howard ? His face always crops up in Ron's movies in, blink and you'll miss him, bit parts. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
"Deus Ex Chimpanzee"...that, sir, is genius. |