31 Days of Horror! Phenomena Movie Review!




Something is amiss in the Swiss countryside as young girls are disappearing.  When a severed head of one of the girls is found in a lake several months later, the police believe the girls disappearances may be linked to that of a serial killer.

Originally released in the United States under the title Creepers, Phenomena stars Jennifer Connelly as Jennifer Corvino, a young girl with the unique ability to communicate with insects. 

When Jennifer arrives at an exclusive Swiss boarding school, her first night is riddled with strange dreams and subsequent sleepwalking.  During her bout of sleepwalking, Jennifer witnesses the murder of a fellow student.  The shock causes her to slip and fall from the roof where she semi-awakens and wanders into the town.  After being nearly run over by a car, two young men take her in their vehicle and drive off.  Frightened, she fights them off and escapes from the car only to land in the middle of an unknown forest.  It is there that she meets Inga, a chimpanzee, who leads her to the home of forensic entomologist John McGregor, played by Donald Pleasence.  With McGregor’s help, Jennifer slowly begins to understand her unique talent and together, they seek to find the killer that is stalking the town.

If you have only seen the edited movie Creepers, they you are missing out on a lot of back story and may be a bit confused over the course of events.  When Anchor Bay released the film in 1999 under the movie’s original title Phenomena they restored the near 30 minutes of deleted footage.  In addition to the added footage, the release also included special features on the making of the movie including interviews with the director and select members of the cast.

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