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Phenomena, a review by Jon

Phenomena
4 out of 5



Jennifer Connelly plays her name-sake, actors daughter Jennifer Corvino, who travels to a school in Sweden. The area has become notorious for girls going missing and Jennifer is drawn into the killers world by insects. She has an empathy with them, fascinating Scottish professor Donald Pleasence and he helps her try to uncover the murderers identity.

Dario Argento returns to the dark fairytale world of Suspiria with a similar premise and plot to that earlier film, but forgoing the supernatural in favour of a more down-to-earth serial killer. Jennifer's bizarre control over insects could feel shoe-horned in; a hint of fantasy for fantasy sake, but the film as a whole is so completely nuts, it works!

Compared directly with Tenebre, it is a much better film. It looks better and has some powerful set-pieces. The murders are slicker and more brutal for the most part, especially the audacious opener with Dario's own daughter playing the victim. But what is it with him and putting heads through glass windows? In Suspiria, I thought it was a metaphor for the dark reflection of the real world versus the fairy-tale, but now I think that was just film-nerd bollocks (sorry) and actually, he probably does it because it looks really cool! Really he overdoes it, but using a special camera to capture the first one demonstrates his Hitchcock like creativity. If only he shared the Master's discipline, as I said before, it could be superb.

The opening sets up a tasty foreboding atmosphere at the school, but the obvious plot-line of home-sickness and bullying plays out quickly and leads into a new direction with Pleasence as a professor of insects and his assistant, a well-trained chimp. You read that right. A chimp! Maybe more pet or even friend than assistant, but regardless, she is marvellous and absolutely convincing. The main thing here is setting up Jennifer's power over insects, which is a strange conceit stretched to the limit but looks impressive, either summoning clouds of flies, or following single creatures to remains of victims. The two plots of sleepwalking insect queen versus serial killer rampage doesn't quite click, but Argento is so committed to both it's impossible to say which is the after-thought!

As it is the middle of the film goes nowhere and is tedious. The typically stilted acting means the players do little to liven up the film. Donald Pleasence is as you would expect is far and away the best, but he highlights the more amateurish members of the cast and the mundane dialogue. Jennifer Connelly isn't bad, playing with the part with some unexpected attitude, but she's hardly off-screen and it's a big responsibility.

But then we have the final act which is a tour de force as all the elements come together. Again similar to Suspiria's ending of hidden doors and nightmarish traps, but the effects are more grown-up and disturbing as hell. The final confrontation leading from a torturous bath of maggoty remains and insane prisoners to a beautifully filmed underwater sequence, with a truly disgusting foe is mindbending stuff and I can't recommend it enough. And I can't begin to tell you the bloody chimp's role in all of this. Honestly, I've never seen anything quite like that. It's madder than a box a frogs!

I do think the best horror films should contain elements so bizarre that they to some degree alienate the viewer. Even before the scenes with the chimp, there's a lot to take on board with the insects. But convention sets up a safety net, so when you're watching a film you feel could literally go anywhere while still holding onto some sort of logic, there's more trepidation. Take The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the dinner scene, which creates repulsion. Or Psycho's earlier take on the same story with twists designed to put the viewer in a spin. Most recently, The Mist took no prisoners with it's ending. It's a fine line though and I think Phenomena is ultimately successful and able to stand alongside those.

Conflicting and unresolved ideas cripple the film, but overall it's pacey and so utterly bonkers, it's essential viewing for any horror fan and worth a dozen Screams. 

(From Jon's Marathon of Horror! 2009 on October 23rd, 2009)

Where the Wild Things Are, a review by Critter

Where the Wild Things Are



Director(s): Spike Jonze

Writer(s):Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers

Plot: An adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's story, where Max, a disobedient little boy sent to bed without his supper, creates his own world--a forest inhabited by ferocious wild creatures that crown Max as their ruler.

Cast: My ThoughtsRating:5/5


(From Critter's Films at Cinemas Reviews on December 13th, 2009)

Tom's Buffy and Angel Marathon, a review by Tom

6.16 Hell's Bells
Writer: Joss Whedon (Created By), Rebecca Rand Kirshner (Writer), Joss Whedon (Writer)
Director: David Solomon
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers), James Marsters (Spike), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Casey Sander (Mr. Tony Harris), Kali Rocha (Halfrek), Andy Umberger (D'Hoffryn), Lee Garlington (Jessica Harris), Jan Hoag (Cousin Carol), George D. Wallace (Old Xander Harris), Amber Benson (Tara Maclay), Steven Gilborn (Uncle Rory), Susannah L. Brown (Caterer Girl), Chris Emerson (Josh Age 21), Mel Fair (Tentacle Demon), Julian Franco (Young Bartender), Joey Hiott (Josh Age 10), Rebecca Jackson (Tarantula), Nick Kokich (Demon Teen), James C. Leary (Clem), Abigail Mavity (Sara Age , Daniel McFeeley (Warty Demon), Robert Noble (Night Manager), Megan Vint (Karen), Ashleigh Ann Wood (Sara Age 18)

The episode itself is not bad, but I really do not like the fact, that they have broken up Xander and Anya in such a stupid way.

Rating:



6.17 Normal Again
Writer: Joss Whedon (Created By), Diego Gutierrez (Writer), Joss Whedon (Writer)
Director: Rick Rosenthal
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers), James Marsters (Spike), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Danny Strong (Jonathan Levinson), Adam Busch (Warren Meers), Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells), Dean Butler (Hank Summers), Michael Warren (Doctor), Kirsten Nelson (Lorraine Ross), Amber Benson (Tara Maclay), Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers), Rodney Charles (Orderly), April Dion (Kissing Girl), Sarah Scivier (Nurse)

A great episode playing with an alternate reality. Fun that they left it open in the end, that the other reality may be the real one.

Rating:



6.18 Entropy
Writer: Joss Whedon (Created By), Drew Z. Greenberg (Writer), Joss Whedon (Writer)
Director: James A. Contner
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers), James Marsters (Spike), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Danny Strong (Jonathan Levinson), Adam Busch (Warren Meers), Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells), Kali Rocha (Halfrek), Amber Benson (Tara Maclay), Edie Caggiano (Mother)

Another average episode.

Rating:



6.19 Seeing Red
Writer: Joss Whedon (Created By), Steven S. DeKnight (Writer), Joss Whedon (Writer)
Director: Michael Gershman
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers), Amber Benson (Tara Maclay), James Marsters (Spike), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Danny Strong (Jonathan Levinson), Adam Busch (Warren Meers), Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells), Amy Hathaway (Christine, Girl in Bar with Anya), Nichole Hiltz (Diana, Frank's Girlfriend), Garrett Brawith (Frank), Tim Hager (Administrator), Christopher James (Guard #2), James C. Leary (Clem), Stefan Marks (Guard #1), Kate Orsini (Girl at Bronze)

A fun episode with a great finale which brings the stone rolling for this season's showdown.

Rating:

(From Tom's Buffy and Angel Marathon on December 19th, 2010)