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PHENOMENA - REVIEW

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Well, it's Halloween, so what better to review but a film by the master of Italian horror himself? Yes, I'm talking about Dario Argento, of course. Armed with an army of flies, a gloriously inappropriate rock opera soundtrack and buckets of shattered glass and blood, Phenomena (also known as "Creepers" ) is certainly one of those must-watch silly horror flicks. Troll 2 gets all the love these days but Phenomena, though it's made somewhat more pertinently (visually at least), is a completely entertaining oddity that's well worth seeing for any fan of trashy/arty horror. A young Jennifer Connelly leads a mostly lost cast and actually does a decent job considering her lines are about as silly as they come. Donald Pleasence, however, doesn't seem too sure about why he's having to interact with an ape almost every scene he's in while spouting out convenient bags of quirky exposition. Everyone else is mostly rubbish and, as such, help provide ton

TENEBRAE - REVIEW

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Going through a Dario Argento phase it seems. I started watching/re-watching the director's 'classics' the other week starting with the goofy but completely enjoyable Phenomena . And now it's Tenebrae 's turn. Well, no apes this time I'm afraid. This one sees a writer being stalked by a serial killer who keeps getting rid of young ladies all over town in increasingly creative ways. It's a somewhat self-involved whodunit with the semblance of a plot and some inventive camerawork. That's pretty much it. Oh, and the usual mix of shattered glass and breasts thrown in, of course. I think one of the reasons why Tenebrae is so hard to warm up to as a movie is that you don't really get a main character. You don't really get one person you can get behind and follow through the whole thing. Peter Neal's writer is our beacon keeping the plot afloat, for sure, but he's not interesting, he has little personality and his scenes tend to drag