Phenomena

Fever pitch had been building for some time (within the ever growing community of Italian maestro Dario Argento's legion of fans) in anticipation of Dragon Entertainment's limited edition double disc set of 'Phenomena', but would it prove to be the holy grail of said fans collections...

But first the film itself, Phenomena tells the tale of a young girl Jennifer (Connelly) Corvino who has a penchant for sleepwalking and telepathic communication with wildlife (in particular the insect world). The poor little rich girl is packed off by her movie star dad to a Swiss girls school (full of giggling Bee Gees fans!?) where a (traditionally gloved) serial killer is brutally murdering the young lasses. The police seem to be having no luck tracking the killer down, so with the assistance of a crippled Donald Pleasance (and his monkey companion Inge) Jennifer sets out to find the truth about all the murderous goings on...

Yes I know, if you have never seen Phenomena and you have just read that plot outline you'd be wondering what the hell is going! But although this may be Argento's most off kilter experience plotwise (and yes, it is a plot that demands you leave your disbelief at home) - it has to be said that it's an entertaining dream like movie which floats between modern fairy tale and darkly violent horror. Stylishly directed (once again by Argento) and wrapped up in a aural mixture of stomping rock and the trademark Simonetti/Boswell sounds that regulars will know and love more so.

But what about the disc? Now this is where Argento fans (well, the English speaking ones) were frothing in anticipation of this particular release hitting the shelves. A bit of very basic background - when first issued onto the English market, the film was chopped down to a neat 80 odd minutes running time (well, between 79 and 83 minutes depending on where you lived) under the title 'Creepers'. This was the version that many fans seen when the film was first released. It wasn't really until the advent of DVD that most folk got to savour a more complete version of Argento's work in his 'directors cut' of 'Phenomena' when Anchor Bay released their rightly applauded (but sadly problematic pressing) which ran for a more fulfilling 109 minutes. Argento fans were very happy, or they were...until they got wind of an even longer print available - this time in Japan with a running time of 115 minutes! But to the bane of the English speaking Argento-philes it was an Italian language print with Japanese subtitles (god forbid!) So when Dragon announced not only that they were planning an English friendly edition BUT a special edition to boot, the fans were ecstatic.

Interestingly, early reviews of the Dragon edition were picked up on by corners of the fan market as being less positive than they should have been perceived. First, we must look at the film itself. Yes at last, we have an English friendly print of the (strangely labelled) 'Integral' version of the film but maybe not as English friendly as some would have wished. Firstly although Dragon turned over every stone to try obtain the English audio for the re-instated 'integral' scenes (of which account for around six minutes) they were unsuccessful. While previous DVD releases from Anchor Bay (like Torso and Deep Red) suffered similar audio problems, they tackled this by automatically inserting English subtitles onto said Italian language scenes - Dragon's Phenomena disc doesn't provide this, but should the English market be chastising a German company for this? Lets look at this further - the disc is of German origin, the print is of Italian origin - the disc contains both full German audio and the full Italian audio also. For German fans that want to watch the film in Italian with German subtitles they can do this also. Now is it just me, or is the inclusion of any English audio or subtitles (albeit not perfectly polished off) a welcome addition? I think so! The subtitling isn't perfect, but then I have yet to see any Japanese DVD deliver perfect English translations either. What we do get is the opportunity to see for the first time the 'integral' version with 99% of its audio in optional English audio or (my own preferred option and should be yours also) the film with its full Italian audio track (as per the print) with English subtitles throughout. Of course, there will be the odd occasion where you will chuckle at some of the subtitling (like the Fangoria magazine references or Donald Pleasance talking about the 'suffering and ironing' following his crippling accident) but this will no way ruin your pleasure in watching the film.

The film print is generally pleasing with some grain showing in dark/night scenes (something often inherent from NTSC transfers). The audio is good throughout also, though the music soundtrack is a lot meatier on the English audio version than the Italian track in which the background music is indeed just that - mixed down low and not as jarring at times as the English version.

Now onto the extras, this package comes with a second disc that contains a welcome mixture of both new and old additional material that makes very interesting viewing indeed. Owners of Anchor Bays release will be familiar with the short 'behind the scenes' segment and the two entertaining music videos by Simonetti and Wyman, but it is the three new interview segments that will be of most interest to the films fans. First up is a 20 minute interview with Argento himself - at times he comes across feeling very uncomfortable with some of the questioning but still enlightens us with some great snippets of related information (The Murderous Monkey anyone?). The English subtitles here are also at times quite awkward to follow but you get by. Next up is an interview with Simonetti, this chat is a lot more lively and enthusiastic with Simonetti coming across as a very friendly and interesting chap indeed. Finally, there is a lengthy interview with Luigi Cozzi - long time friend and assistant to Argento - who discusses not only his association with Argento but also his own movie career and his interest in the fantasy genre. Simonetti appears once again on the disc to provide a live piano rendition of the Phenomena themes, a lovely-relaxed impromptu performance that will leave you longing for more!

The discs also contain the obligatory trailers and still galleries - of which actress Connelly gets one of her own (and I had never realised just how gorgeous this woman was until I flicked through her image selection, grrrr!) Oh and yes, there's a nice gallery selection for the film itself also.

Finally, well worth a mention is the beautiful packaging that this double disc set comes in. Unlike the highly unattractive and space consuming 'tin' containers that Anchor Bay have been inflicting collectors with (please drop these things AB!), Dragon have went for a more compact and attractive double digi-pack gatefold sleeve (with a pocket for the equally lovely full colour booklet) - all of which is stored inside a stiff card box similar to major studio releases like Fight Club and Raging Bull. Anchor Bay take note.

So, is it worth picking up? Well, yes. Die hard fans (and completist collectors) of Argento's work will want to add this to their collection, though folk with only a passing interest in his work would more likely be happy to just pick up one of the 'directors cut' DVD's already available in the UK and the US. But for the aforementioned completists there are only two DVD version of the 'integral' Phenomena available, one from Japan and this one from Dragon. Both the Japanese and the Dragon discs come in at a similar price range. The Japanese disc contains the Italian audio with Japanese subtitles and virtually nothing in the way of extras. The Dragon disc, as you can see from our review, contains a whole lot more - both in extras and audio/subtitling options. Whilst at times there are some fiddly imperfections that detract in a small way with the finished presentation, it really should not take away from what actually is a very nice package that I'm more than happy to have in my collection.

Not Argento's greatest work by far, but still a good one and a fine package from Dragon Entertainment. I would say that the Argento obsessed among you will want to track this down, but you've probably already got it!

Review by 'honest' Al Simpson