Phenomena(1985)

1h 56m

Release Date: Aug 2, 1985

A young girl who has an amazing ability to communicate with insects is transferred to an exclusive Swiss boarding school, where her unusual capability might help solve a string of murders.

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Director & Top Cast

Dario Argento
Director

Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Corvino

Donald Pleasence
Professor John McGregor

Daria Nicolodi
Frau Brückner

Dalila Di Lazzaro
Headmistress

Patrick Bauchau
Inspector Rudolf Geiger

Fiore Argento

Vera Brandt

Federica Mastroianni

Sophie

Fiorenza Tessari

Gisela Sulzer

Mario Donatone

Morris Shapiro

Francesca Ottaviani

Nurse

Michele Soavi

Kurt, Geiger's Assistant

Franco Trevisi

Real Estate Agent

Fausta Avelli

Schoolgirl

Marta Biuso

Schoolgirl

Sophie Bourchier

Schoolgirl

Paola Gropper

Schoolgirl

Ninke Hielkema

Schoolgirl

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo,Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio: 1.66 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: Italy

Language: English,Italian,Swiss German,Danish

Summaries

Plot Summary

A lost tourist, Vera Grandt (Fiore Argento), is beheaded in the Swiss countryside. Her head is found by Inspector Rudolf Geiger (Patrick Bauchau) and his assistant, Kurt (Michele Soavi), who take it to entomologist John McGregor (Donald Pleasance). He estimates the time of death by examining the maggots.Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly), insect-loving daughter of a movie star, arrives at the Swiss Richard Wagner Academy for Girls, chaperoned by Frau Brückner (Daria Nicolodi), who places her with roommate Sophie (Federica Mastroianni). While sleepwalking, Jennifer witnesses a student being slain. She awakens and falls, ending up lost in the woods. She is discovered by Inga (Tanga), McGregor's chimpanzee attendant, and brought to him. He believes her to have a special gift for telepathy. Jennifer's memories of the murder she witnessed are vague, and a brain scan by the school doctor (Antonio Maimone) is not helpful in addressing her sleepwalking.After Sophie is killed, a firefly guides Jennifer to a maggot-covered glove. Back in the school, when the students taunt Jennifer for her connection to insects, she summons a swarm of flies to the school, which cover the whole building. In an attempt to find the killer, McGregor gives her a living specimen of the Great Sarcophagus fly, which is drawn to decaying human flesh. The fly leads her to the abandoned house where Vera Grandt was attacked, attracted by a severed hand.One night McGregor is murdered. Jennifer no longer wants to stay at the school, so she goes to stay at Frau Brückner's house. After numerous red herrings, Jennifer realizes that Frau Brückner has given her poisonous pills, and purges the pill out. Brückner locks her in a room, but Jennifer discovers a tunnel leading underneath the house to a dungeon. She is suddenly grabbed by Inspector Geiger, who has been chained up to the wall. Frightened, she backs away from his mutilated appearance and falls into a pool full of decaying, maggot infested bodies. With Geiger's help Jennifer escapes.In the basement, she finds Brückner's small son, Patua (Davide Marotta), with a hideously deformed face. He chases Jennifer onto a motorboat, but she manages to escape his attempts to kill her by summoning a swarm of flies to devour his face, leaving him drowning in the lake. On the shore, she is greeted by her father's assistant Morris Shapiro (Mario Donatone), who came to help after an earlier telephone call. He is immediately decapitated by a deranged Brückner, using a piece of sharpened sheet metal. In the final confrontation between Brückner and Jennifer, Brückner is suddenly attacked and killed by Inga with a straight razor.

Storyline

Jennifer Corvino, the daughter of a famous actor, has had trouble with sleepwalking for some time. Her doctor said that it can develop a split personality. She discovers her alternate personality when she stays at a boarding school that was once the home of Richard Wagner. But someone has been killing the students, and it relates only indirectly to the criminal sanatorium nearby. — Scott Hutchins <scottandrewh@home.com> In Switzerland, Jennifer Corwin, teenage daughter of a famous actor, arrives at an expensive boarding school and rooms with French schoolmate Sophie. Jennifer is a sleepwalker and she can also communicate telepathically with insects. While sleepwalking, she meets and befriends a Scottish entomologist, Prof. John McGregor, and his chimpanzee Tonga. Jennifer decides to help Dr. McGregor's investigation of a serial killer who is murdering young girls in the area. When her friend Sophie disappears and Dr. McGregor is killed, the scared Jennifer decides to call her lawyer and return to Los Angeles. She is invited to stay in the house of Frau Brückner while she waits for her flight, but the serial killer is already after her. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Somebody--or something?--is killing people in a Swiss village when a teenage boarding-school student with insect empathy and a problem with sleepwalking arrives and helps the local entomologist try to solve the mystery and stop the murders. — Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com>