Phenomena (film)

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Movie
Original title Phenomena
Country of production Italy
original language Italian , English
Publishing year 1985
length 111 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Dario Argento
script Dario Argento
Franco Ferrini
production Dario Argento
music Simon Boswell
Goblin
camera Romano Albani
cut Franco Fraticelli
occupation

Phenomena is an Italian giallo from 1985 by the director Dario Argento , who also wrote the screenplay with Franco Ferrini .

action

In recent months, a serial killer has been up to mischief in the Swiss hinterland, who likes to kill young girls, cut off the heads of the victims and abduct the corpses. After the discovery of a half-decayed skull, the investigating inspector Rudolf Geiger and his assistant Kurt hope for help from the disabled entomologist Professor John McGregor. This is able to determine the exact time of death of mutilated bodies with its insects by determining the number of insects, the appearance and the type. The professor dates the time of death to an age of around eight months, so that Geiger can almost definitely assign the found head to Vera Brandt, a missing 16-year-old Danish tourist.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Corvino, the young daughter of a famous actor and his divorced wife, who lives in India, arrives in nearby Zurich at the international girls' boarding school " Richard Wagner ", the former home of the German composer. She shares a room with Sophie, who comes from France and welcomes her in a friendly manner, and from her learns, among other things, of the series of murders of young girls in the vicinity. On the first night, Jennifer subconsciously gets up under the full moon , sleepwalking through the spacious boarding school with empty wings, and becomes an eyewitness to a brutal murder in a trance. She then flees the scene of the crime, takes detours to the edge of the forest, where she is found by chance by the chimpanzee Inge, a trained assistant to the entomologist McGregor, and brought to her "master".

The professor then examines the confused and meanwhile woken up Jennifer, who at first cannot remember anything, so she suffers from amnesia . The pupil, who is fascinated by insects and can also communicate telepathically with them, immediately feels at home with the single and rather shy professor, because he shares the same passion with her. When she returns, Jennifer is labeled a madwoman who urgently needs psychiatric treatment and is soon shunned by her classmates. The next night, her roommate Sophie sneaks out of the room to meet her boyfriend in secret, but on the way back she becomes another victim of the serial offender. At the same time, Jennifer wakes up from her roommate's cry for help, leaves the school building and, with the help of a firefly , which shows her the way, finds one of the girl killer's gloves in a bush.

The next morning she is interrogated by the police, but withholds the discovery of the glove for fear of appearing mad. She prefers to entrust herself with her supernatural perceptions to the aging Professor McGregor, who identifies the maggots nested in the find as larvae of the large sarcophagus, a species of insect that feeds exclusively on cadavers. The professor is fascinated by the young girl and encourages her to use her newly discovered gift of insects to arrest the psychopathic killer. He hands her a full-grown fly of the species that is supposed to lead her into the vicinity of the disappeared bodies and signal a possible closeness, which she can perceive through her extraordinary abilities. That’s the plan.

Since the location of the corpses is unknown, Jennifer takes the insect on a bus trip through the surrounding area. In a wooded mountain region the insect suddenly becomes restless, Jennifer gets out and walks on foot to a remote, uninhabited mountain hut where body parts are, but flees in panic when a real estate agent shows up. A little later, the investigative inspector Geiger turns up at the same place, asking about the former tenants - the Brückner. Since Jennifer no longer feels safe in Switzerland and is no longer willing to return to the hated boarding school, she contacts Morris Shapiro, her father's agent, who is supposed to bring her back to the United States. After a long wait, Ms. Brückner suddenly appears, her caregiver in Switzerland, who takes her home for one night with her and her little disfigured son.

The professor was previously a victim of Ms. Brückner. He was observed by the scientist's trained monkey, who can later identify the murderer. In the house of the despotic Frau Brückner, Jennifer is held prisoner and later also mistreated until the bully lets go of her and allows the inspector, who has meanwhile arrived, to enter, harassed him and chained him in the basement of the house. However, in front of Jennifer's eyes, the detained investigator manages to free himself by mutilating his hand to slip out of his bondage and briefly engaging Frau Brückner in a fight, so that Jennifer manages to escape while he is from the Despot is killed. On her escape, Jennifer is pursued by Brückner's disfigured son, who wants to kill her and turns out to be the girl killer. However, Jennifer manages to repel him and kill him in a duel by means of insects that have been summoned.

At the end of the film, the completely exhausted Jennifer is attacked by Mrs. Brückner, who previously killed Morris Shapiro. In extreme distress, Inge, the trained chimpanzee McGregor, appears and saves Jennifer by tearing the attacker to pieces with a razor. In the last shot of the film, Jennifer hugs Inge.

Reviews

"Lengthy, primitively staged horror spectacle that tries to create tension with bloodthirsty shock effects and penetrating heavy metal music."

- Lexicon of international film

“In Phenomena , Argento comes out as a heavy metal fan, combining dark guitar riffs (by Iron Maiden ) with the saccharine-sweet synthesizer sequences typical of “ I  Goblin ”- a thoroughly successful combination that only adds to the bizarre atmosphere of this perhaps most breathtaking of all Argento thrillers reinforced. "

- Norbert Faulhaber

Cut versions

In Germany Phenomena was published without FSK approval and was indexed by the Federal Testing Office for media harmful to minors . A shortened by about six minutes version was over 18 years released . In 2012 the film was removed from the index. A re-examination is still pending.

In the United States , the film was released under the title "Creepers" in an 83-minute cut ( MPAA release: R-rated ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Phenomena. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ Critique on inselmedia.de
  3. ↑ released on schnittberichte.com
  4. ↑ Overview of indexings, seizures and deletions in August 2012 on schnittberichte.com. Retrieved September 1, 2012.
  5. ↑ Comparison between the German version and the US version on schnittberichte.com