MIFF 2023 Film Review - Phenomena

Images courtesy of Common State.

From one of the godfathers of Giallo (a term used to describe Italian horror/thrillers that typically revolve around a murder mystery, often having a penchant for strange plot twists) comes perhaps the strangest of them all; Phenomena. This is the first of the esteemed Dario Argento's films to be scripted in English, although the 4K restoration that played at MIFF was presented in Italian, which I believe is due to the Integral Cut missing English audio in several scenes.

We follow Jennifer (a young Jennifer Connelly, playing a character that was originally written to be Al Pacino's fictional daughter), as she arrives at a boarding school and promptly begins sleepwalking her way onto the roof of the building. The only problem? She's now witnessed a killing at the hands (or should I say gloves) of a cloaked murderer. Oh, and her confidante is a wheelchair-ridden Donald Pleasence, who happens to be a forensic entomologist. Which is good, because Jennifer can telepathically communicate with insects. Donald Pleasence's lab assistant also happens to be a chimpanzee.

While reading this, you may realise the film's biggest strength is also kind of a weakness - in its pursuit of the bizarre, Phenomena becomes a bit messy. Yes, somewhere between the hauntingly beautiful shots of the Swiss Alps and the Iron Maiden and Motörhead needle drops, it somehow loses its way. As much as it pains me to find fault with Argento or in any way insist that he's "doing it wrong", especially when I usually champion films for going off the deep end, it does feel like his imagination was left to run a little too wild. Hell, he's even said that the film also takes place in an alternate history where the Germans won WWII.

I wouldn't go as far to say that it squanders its potential completely, because the end result is still pretty fun, but the DNA is there for an awesome Giallo flick about a girl and her bugs against the world, if only it had fewer loose threads (just before writing this I realised that I still didn't fully understand the killers' motives). That being said, it still bears many of the hallmarks of high camp - and that's without even talking about the final fifteen minutes. Just when the film should be wrapping up, it has one final reveal, before ending in a way that's well, shall we say, bananas. Featuring Argento at his most feverishly creative, Phenomena lives up to its title, providing an experience that's as difficult to rationalise as it is rare to come by.

Follow Eli on Letterboxd, Twitter and Instagram.

Phenomena screened as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival, running in metro cinemas August 3-20 and online August 18-27.

For more info, click here.