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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)

Killing Machine, a review by Jimmy

Title: Killing Machine
Original Title Daehakno-yeseo maechoon-hadaka tomaksalhae danghan yeogosaeng ajik Daehakno-ye Issda
Country South Korea
Year: 2000
Director: Nam Ki-Woong
Rating: Unrated
Length: 1h00
Video:  Widescreen 2.00:1
Audio:  Korean Dolby 2.0
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Lee So-Woon - Teenage Student
Kim Dae-tong - Teacher
Bae Soo-Baek
Kim Ho-Kyum
Yang Hyuk-Joon
Plot:
A sadistic teacher discovers one of his teenage students is a prostitute and blackmails her into becoming his sex slave. When she becomes pregnant, he arranges her demise. His henchmen brutally murder her, slicing and dicing the corpse. At this point a mysterious, twisted Dr. Frankenstein-like character intervenes and rebuilds the remains into unstoppable cyborg whose body parts have a memory. Now robotically revived and ready for revenge, the "Killing Machine" sets out to settle the score with her newly built "hardware."
Extras:
Kangshul (Short movie by the same director)
Photo gallery

I have no idea what's make me buy this movie, but it's probably just the cover and the fact that it's an unknown Asian movie. This movie is an art film and because of this the plot explain more the movie than the movie itself (honestly I think that the synopsis is just a way to sell the movie to a mainstream audience). The visual is good and the music serve the movie greatly (the soundtrack is mostly made of opera song). The movie is hard to follow sometimes and it doesn't always make sense (it's an artistic movie it doesn't have to).

Not the kind of movie that I listen usually, but I was pleasantly surprise. This is a good way to spend one hour, even if the movie is hard to follow. The general ambiance make the viewing a good visual and auditory experience. I recommand to see it if you think that the Asian cinema is just about grey ghost and martial art.

The short is interesting too, because of the musical choice (piano composition) but I can't say nothing about the story since it's only in Korean with no subtitle.

Rating : 4/5

(From My review - unseen and unwatched january marathon on January 13th, 2008)

Smallville Marathon #2, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Ian is a very ambitious student and he wants to have a scholarship from LuthorCorp. For this he kills one of the teachers after he recieved a "C" and he dates both Lana and Chloe - at the same time. Clark is not the only one with a secret. He tries to warn his friends but they misinterpret it.

My Opinion: I enjoyed that episode, Jonathan Taylor Thomas (Home Improvement) did a good job. But I especially enjoyed that Clark put a foot down. When he warns them about anything, he means it. Unfortunately they didn't really listen as one of the following episodes will show.

Synopsis: During a motocross race with Pete Clark accidentally falls into the Kawatche caves. The Kawatche are an old indian native american tribe and they have legends surrounding a man coming to Earth in a rain of fire who will protect mankind. Unfortunately LuthorCorp plans to build an office tower on that very spot. Then the foreman get killed by a wolf and the thing gets mysterious.

My Opinion: The Kawatche caves will become a major story location in the future and I like the idea that someone has been on Earth long before Clark. The question remains how that person could possibly know that and how Clark would arrive on Earth. The fact that Clark has fallen in love with someone was unfortunately a dead giveaway of who would be gone by the end of this episode (one way or the other).

Synopsis: First Whitney is declared MIA then he suddenly appears in Smallville and wants to revive his relationship with Lana. Unfortunately he has lost some memories due to a war injury. Clark is suspicious because some things don't add up and he investigates on his own.

My Opinion:X-Ray) the second person who has made another appearance. Unfortunately this was the last appearance of Eric Johnson on the show, his character Whitney is now officially KIA.

Synopsis: Lionel has bugged Lex' office to spy on him and now Lex wants to return the favour. But the operation gets out on control, when the "bug team" takes Lionel and Martha hostage and tries to open Lionel's safe. A police squad stands ready but Clark finds his own - and very unique - way into the building.

My Opinion: When I saw this for the first time I hadn't suspected that Lionel had the octagonal disc. I think they never explained how he got his hands on it. But know we know for sure that not only Lex is experimenting with the meteor rocks, but Lionel as well. One wonders how much Lionel knows about Clark at this point.

(From Smallville Marathon #2 on May 24th, 2008)