Phenomena (1985)

(AKA: Creepers)

My rating - 8/10

(click on images below for larger versions)

A young girl who can somehow communicate with insects arrives at a boarding school and starts to suffer from bouts of sleepwalking. She meets a professor of emptomology who also has a pet chimp to help him due to him being in a wheelchair. The girl and professor try to use her powers to help solve a series of murders.

Jennifer Connelly, Diaria Nicolodi and Donald Pleasence head the cast in this wonderful slice of Italian horror from the master Dario Argento. Lots of gory murders, some nice scares and atmosphere and some skin crawling insect action make for a fun ride, at least for us, not so much for Jennifer, who during filming of the final scene had the tip of her finger bitten off by the chimp and had to be rushed to the hospital to have it reattached.

The gore effects are good, the soundtrack is excellent, the acting is good as is the direction. There's some great looking set pieces too including a scene of Jennifer's character swmming in a lake surrounded by a ring of fire from a motorboat explosion, and a quite gross scene of her struggling to escape in a pit of rotting bodies. I love this film so it's one I'm always going to highly recommend.

SCREEN SHOTS

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