Phenomena: Viewer Comments

One of the Worst Horror Films Ever Made.

Rating: 1/2 star (out of 5)

One of the worst films ever made, Dario Argento's CREEPERS takes a promising premise -- that of a young girl employing her ESP ability to communicate and control insects to ferret out a serial killer -- and screws it up in every which way imaginable. Jennifer Connelly is understated and appealing in the lead, but she's been left out in the cold with a screenplay that never follows up or develops its intriguing aspects, with one unresolved subplot being dumped to make way for another, and a head-scratching array of camerabatics which comes off as choppy and shoddy in both design and execution. The film never really finds a sustaining center, because Argento's trying to cram in too much useless story information rather than building tension through character and incident -- the characters just seem to be along for the ride, it seems. There's not a genuine scare to be found, and not only due to the lack of shock value but because we become so detached from the shoddily developed story that we find ourselves never really giving a damn what happens. And the final quarter -- which should be the point where the audiences nerves start frying -- is listless and protracted, unveiling the all-too-easy-to-guess identity of the killer and piling on one red herring after another for the sole sake of sensationalism. The pits.

I've seen a couple of other Argento movies and some of them are good, but this is certainly his best. To my opinion the number 10 best movie ever made. The story is really great, original and surprising. You never get what you expect in a positive way it is. How longer you watch the movie the better you get in it. It's a pity that some people only saw the cut version because it's worth it the whole way, i'm lucky i've seen the uncut version. By the way it's got one of the goriest scenes i've seen in a movie.

About "Phenomena" it's one of my favourite movies, exactly my number 11 as i keep an list of my favourite 100 movies each 2 or 3 months. So as a rating i would like to give it 5 stars.

Another gold star for Dario.

I'll make my comments short and sweet: This film is colorful, creative, well acted, fun, surprising and stylish and it makes the FRIDAY THE 13TH, HALLOWEEN, the ELM STREET sequels and other 80s horror look like the unimaginative junk it is (well, most of it anyway). I put this with "Re-Animator" and "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" as one of my favorite horror films of the decade.

When I was a kid I wanted to marry Jennifer Connelly after seeing her in Labyrinth (hope that's spelled right), and now I see why! Her performance here is wonderful and she's always great to look at (even at age 14-15, or whatever she was when this was filmed). I'm so happy to see her now getting recognition with her performances in "Requiem For a Dream" and "A Beautiful Mind."

Also, Daria Nicolodi and Donald Pleasence contribute immensely to the fun of "Phenomena," and if you enjoy heavy metal/hard rock music, you'll love this films soundtrack.

My Score: 9 out of 10.

I found this DVD in a bargain bin... Great I thought, Jennifer Connelly, Donald Pleasance, and music from Motorhead and Iron Maiden. What more could you ask? Well - How about decent direction, effects, continuity, or how about a script that doesn't look like a 5 yr old's first draft???

BTW, the effects are so bad I am going to keep this film, they have turned it into a real comedy.

Argento seems to have lost his complete touch on films after the 1980's but his horror films are still worth watching and above average, almost filled with an artistic intent. Creepers is a little film about an odd case of communicating with bugs and savage killers. I especially liked the weird creature found inside the film, I won't give it away so you have to watch.