Phenomena (film)

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She is a schoolgirl with an incredible telepathic link to insects. He is a fly with the amazing ability to pick up the scent of dead bodies over a great distance. Together, They Fight Crime!

Jennifer Corvino, the daughter of a famous actor, arrives in an elite academy in Switzerland. Unfortunately, there are several factors that make the transfer to a new school hard on her:

1. Jennifer has the ability to attract and communicate with insects, which may guarantee her billions of friends among arthropods, but alienates her human peers.
2. She is a chronic sleepwalker, which serves to make her look even more suspicious in the eyes of the faculty and students.
3. There's been a series of grisly murders in the area, and new bodies are still turning up.

During one of her nightly trips, Jennifer meets and befriends Professor John McGregor, a kindly old entomologist who has been helping the local police with the murder investigation. McGregor is fascinated by Jennifer's strange gift, and soon she gets to put her abilities to good use by doing a little amateur sleuthing of her own.

Phenomena is a 1985 film directed and written by Dario Argento, starring a young Jennifer Connelly, huge swarms of flies and a chimpanzee wielding a razor. The initial U.S. release of the film was edited down and re-titled Creepers, though it has since then received an uncut DVD release in the States.

Was the main inspiration for the original Clock Tower game for Super Famicom.

Not to be confused with another film titled Phenomenon, which is an entirely different creature.

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This film provides examples of:

• Alone With the Psycho
• The Beast Master: Jennifer can telepathically communicate with insects and summon swarms of insects to attack people.
• Big Damn Heroes: Inga, Professor McGregor's chimpanzee, kills Frau Brückner when she tries to decapitate Jennifer.
• Boarding School of Horrors: Though most of the horror happens outside the school perimeter.
• Child By Rape: Frau Brückner's child is a result of her getting raped by the inmates of the local insane asylum.
• Creepy Child
• Executive Meddling: Was edited down and released in the United States as Creepers, which wasn't well-received. The Director's Cut was released on DVD to better acclaim.
• Final Girl
• Friend to All Living Things: Jennifer is a friend to all things six-legged, which unfortunately isn't endearing to most people around her.
• House of Broken Mirrors
• Idiot Ball: Some of the victims seem to go out of their way - like walking into dark forests or abandoned houses - to get killed.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Jennifer and Professor John McGregor.
• Madwoman in The Attic Frau Brückner's deformed son.
• Mama Bear: Frau Brückner is a sinister version.
• Off With His Head
• One Woman Wail: The beginning of the film's main theme.
• Eerie Pale Skinned Brunette: Jennifer.
• Reality Subtext: Argento's own mother abandoned the family after a phone call from her paramour, just like Jennifer's.
• Rear Window Investigation
• Soundtrack Dissonance: A weird example that probably isn't deliberate. Some of the very intense horror sequences in the film are backed by Iron Maiden, of all things. It comes across as narmy Nightmare Retardant to most viewers.
• Woman in White: Jennifer in the most iconic scenes.