Tuesday, August 7, 2018

They Don’t Make Trailers Like That Anymore: PHENOMENA (1985)

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m one of the rotating co-hosts on Desmond Reddick’s excellent horror culture podcast DREAD MEDIA. The latest episode, which you can hear here, features our discussion on Dario Argento in general and Phenomena in particular.  I recommend you listen to that conversation.

I’m a major Argento fan, but even I admit that he’s tough to get into initially.  I’m convinced Argento starts out with a series of images, then builds the film around them.  As such, the best of his work has this weird nightmare logic about it--you have to accept that little will make sense in Dario’s world, and the best way to experience it is to just let it wash over you.

I do not envy the editor who has to make a coherent trailer for Phenomena, Dario’s twisted attempt to make a fairy tale for giallo fans.  And yet, whoever did this one did a pretty good job of it.  I like how the trailer begins with a close up of Jennifer Connelly’s eyes opening, and the beginning sequence is taken from the first sleepwalking incident in the film.  It’s as if the editor is leaning into Argento’s style, telling us this is going to be a dream-like experience for us while gently ratcheting up the creep-factor with Donald Pleasance’s speech about the winds of ‘the Swiss Transylvania’ over flashes of Argento’s signature violence and gruesomeness leading into the first title card.  The trailer wisely puts the emphasis on Connelly, who had a striking charisma even back then.  Sadly, though, while we see Inga the monkey, we never see her with the razor blade.


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