Synapse Films, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has selected Mar. 14 as the street date for a double-disc 4K Ultra HD edition of director Dario Argento’s 1985 mixed-genre classic, Phenomena.
One-part giallo mystery. One-part horror tale. Argento’s Phenomena checks all the right boxes … and remains a viewing delight (guilty pleasure) after all these years.
Jennifer (played by Jennifer Connelly, 14-years old in her first starring role … prior to this she had a small part in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America; Jim Henson’s Labyrinth — with David Bowie — would follow in 1986) is the new girl at the private Swiss boarding school, The Richard Wagner Academy for Girls. She has arrived during a series of mysterious murders.
Perhaps something about the place — maybe, maybe not — seems to have triggered some telepathic powers in her, which allows her to communicate with insects. If the police can’t solve the mystery, she will … and she’ll use her “bug” powers to identify the maggot-infested killer! Or, she could be the killer’s next victim.
Synapse Films has three separate viewing options for Argento fans lined up here. There’s the original Italian release version (with English subtitles), clocking in at 116 minutes. An “international cut,” which was trimmed to 100 minutes … and the U.S., re-titled theatrical cut, Creepers, which is swiftly-paced at just 83 minutes.
Bonus goodies include the 2017 feature-length documentary from filmmaker Federico Caddeo, Of Flies and Maggots (Italian, with English subtitles), Phenomena commentary with Troy Howarth (“Murder by Design: The Unsane Cinema of Dario Argento”), the featurette titled “The Three Sarcophagi” and Argento’s music video, “Jennifer.”
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