Phenomena (1985) [International/Director's Cut]

Similar to the theme about the young woman with psychic powers in Stephen King's Carrie, this above-par occult horror film stars Jennifer Connelly as Jennifer Carvino, a fragile-looking waif whose unusual power to control insects comes in handy when she is psychologically brutalized in a nightmarish Swiss boarding school. Two vicious teachers and students who constantly taunt her out of jealousy (her father is a famous movie star), make Jennifer's life at school an inferno. When she calls on her insect friends for help, the school becomes victimized by swarms of nasty flies. But in the meantime, more serious evil is afoot in the mountains: some sort of monster is murdering young girls and the only one who seems even close to catching the killer is a wheelchair-bound scientist who specializes in insects (Donald Pleasance). He has the bright idea of unleashing a "sarcophagus fly" that will find decaying corpses and thereby lead Jennifer to the dead victims and it is assumed, the killer as well.

Director Dario Argento's trademark dream/nightmare sequences add their own horrific content to the story, and the few plot holes here and there are offset by some mind-numbing images that are expected by any cognoscenti of this genre.



Audio Commentary with scholar/author Derek Botelho and film historian/journalist/radio/television commentator David Del Valle