While searching for something to
watch on Amazon Prime I came across this film, it came out a year
before “Labyrinth” and was Jennifer Connelly's first starring
role. Directed by Dario Argento and co starring Donald Pleasence this
all sounded very intriguing and I had never seen or heard of this
film so I pressed play.
What I found was a classic Argento
film.
I have
written this blog 5 times over the past 3 days and each time I have
tried to complete it the blog vanishes from the internet even though
the site says it has saved it. It has lied to me. However, enough
with my frustration, I will continue and hopefully complete this
review once and for all.
The film
starts with a young girl missing the bus in the middle of the Swiss
alps, (by the way she is an area known as the Swiss Transylvania.)
Nothing bad ever happens in a place called Transylvania and no one is
ever killed in horrific ways in a beautiful Dario Argento film. Wait
what am I saying? Of course they do.
The young
girl wanders around a bit and finds a house, like Goldilocks she
walks in, she thinks it is empty. Meanwhile, we can see someone
pulling their chains out of the wall in the same way that Sloth does
in “The Goonies” The girl is chased out of the house and to a
waterfall and killed, the way this was shot reminded me of Sam
Raimi's camera work in “The Evil Dead” films when the evil chases
someone through the woods.
We are
introduced to Jennifer's character who is called Jennifer (that keeps
this simple then) she is stroking a bee in the back of a car with her
thumb. The driver and a fierce lady in the car start to panic and
attack the bee and Jennifer tells them to stop, she saves the bee.
Jennifer
is the daughter of a film star that all girls fancy, but strangely we
never see him. She has been sent to Switzerland to a boarding school
picked out by her fathers agent. The school is in Wagner's large
house from when he was exiled to Switzerland.
When the
car pulls up the Principal is waiting. She is not happy that
Jennifer is late, even though Jennifer explains that the plane was
delayed. This isn't good enough for Madam Principal.
Jennifer
goes to her room and introduces herself to her roommate, a French
girl. Jennifer's roommate tells her of the serial killer that is on
the loose and killing school girls.
You know,
just what you want to hear about on your first night in a creepy
place like this boarding school and just before falling asleep.
Jennifer
gets up and starts to sleep walk around the school and ends up
outside. While another girl is chased around inside the school and
is screaming. (Wagner's house has amazing soundproofing.)
Jennifer
is still sleep walking and is on a ledge outside a first floor window
when the other girl is killed right in front of her causing Jennifer
to fall into a bush.
Jennifer
who is still asleep and unhurt, continues to walk. She ends up in the
middle of a road and is hit by a car with 2 guys in. They stop and
put her in the convertible.
I assume
they are going to take her to a hospital but Jennifer is still
asleep, she struggles against the guys and they nearly have another
car accident, Jennifer is thrown from the car and down the hill. The
guys are clearly relieved to be rid of her.
It is
only now that she starts to wake up. Okay, falling from a building
and getting hit by a car do nothing to her sleep but falling down a
hill that wakes her up. (That is some serious sleep or jet lag.)
When
Jennifer comes round she is greeted by a chimp who leads her to
Donald Pleasence. he plays Professor John McGregor who is a forensic
entomologist who is helping the police try to find the serial killer
through his knowledge of bugs and their life cycles.
Jennifer
and the professor become friends due to their love of bugs and it
turns out bugs are in love with Jenifer and will do anything for her.
(This is the second film I have seen where bugs love a human girl
the less said about “The Bee Movie” the better.)
Jennifer
goes back to school and the principal and the other lady from the car
take her to the doctors to have tests done because they believe that
sleep walking is the first signs of schizophrenia. This is a
pointless scene that does nothing for the storyline but to make us
hate the principal and Frau Brückner (the fierce lady from the car)
even more then we do already.
All the
girls at the school find it hilarious that Jennifer sleepwalks,
meanwhile she contacts her dad's agent asking to leave the school.
She stays
the night at the school and asks her roommate to keep an eye on her
should she sleepwalk again. The French girl doesn't care and is more
interested in sneaking out to see her boyfriend to make out in the
middle of the night.
Surprise
surprise they are both killed and Jennifer sleepwalks out of the
school and finds a glove that belonged to her roommate which it is
full of maggots.
Rather
then go back to the school she goes to the Professor and shows him
the glove, we get more exposition and an explanation of Jennifer's
power to control bugs.
Jennifer
goes back to the school again and the principal and the other
students all start attacking Jennifer because of a letter she had
started writing to her father.
Jennifer
stands up and says “I love you, I love you all.” The girls are
slightly disturbed by that, however, it wasn't directed at them, but
at all the bugs out side which are now covering the school.
The next
day the principal has got Jennifer sedated in bed and is going to
ship her off the a mental hospital. Jennifer wakes up, she removes
the intravenous line in her arm and escapes the school she goes to
the professor for help and they decide to use Jennifer's power over
bugs to track down the killer.
It is
starting to feel like we are getting somewhere with the story, but
rather then describe the whole film and spoil the best part of the
movie, let me give you my thoughts on the film as a whole.
It is a
beautiful film well shout, with great imagery, I would expect nothing
less from Argento. The story of an unseen killer killing girls is
nothing new, however the story of a strange girl who likes bugs and
can control them and is definitely different.
I was
pleasantly surprised by this film, people have been telling me for
years that Jennifer couldn't act in “Labyrinth” and I always
disagreed with them.
I believe
I'm right to disagree as Jennifer shows in this film that she can act
and be a great lead for a film. Though the film is beautiful, Dario
Argento knows how to do creepy and sinister while also grossing out
his audiences, this film is no different.
I would
recommend that people watch this film, however you should be aware of
the type of film this is. If you don't like horror with a
psychological and twisted edge then this may not be for you.