Film

Phenomena

Name: Phenomena
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Released: 1985
Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Daria Nicolodi, Fiore Argento, Federica Mastroianni, Fiorenza Tessari

Supernatural horror

Dario Argento's 1985 masterwork of giallo horror: a girl with insect-communication powers arrives at a Swiss boarding school just as a serial killer stalks the grounds. Visually baroque and sonically experimental, it's utterly committed to its premise. For those who love style, weirdness, and don't need gore to mean realism.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love Argento's operatic colour and bold set-pieces, the kind of giallo-flavoured horror where dream logic and a fairy-tale nerve matter more than tidy plotting.

Skip it if you need a murder mystery that plays fair and tightens steadily; this one drifts, lurches between eerie calm and sudden gore, and its logic often bends to its images.

What it asks of you: It runs nearly two hours, unhurried in its quiet stretches and then abruptly violent, so it wants patience and tolerance for stylised cruelty rather than steady momentum.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Suspiria1977

Argento's colour-soaked masterpiece about a dance academy hiding dark secrets. If you love Phenomena's visual audacity and supernatural wrongness, this is where the style began. Essential viewing.

But The plot is deliberately thin and the dubbing is distracting. It's an experience that values mood over narrative coherence.

Deep Red1975

Argento's most narrative-satisfying giallo: a pianist witnesses a murder and investigates, uncovering a conspiracy. Clever plotting, gorgeous cinematography, and a killer score. Giallo done right.

But Quite violent, and the film's treatment of women by the camera is uncomfortable by modern standards, even within the genre.

Inferno1980

The final part of Argento's "Three Mothers" trilogy, equally baroque and surreal. A woman in New York discovers her apartment building is one of three inhabited by supernatural entities. Pure nightmare logic.

But Deliberately dreamlike and incoherent. If you need plot to make sense, this will frustrate you.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Phenomena

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Company of Wolves1984

Both are European horror films from the mid-80s that prioritize visual and sonic style over conventional storytelling, trusting the audience to surrender to strangeness.

Neil Jordan's fever-dream take on Little Red Riding Hood. Surreal, gorgeously shot, committed to dream logic over plot sense. Like Phenomena, it's a film that shouldn't work but becomes hypnotic through pure aesthetic conviction.

But Takes place in a dream within a dream. If narrative clarity matters to you, abandon hope.

The Wailing2016

A Korean mystery-horror about a village plagued by murders, unfolding through unreliable perspectives. Like Phenomena, it trusts the audience and builds dread through confusion and visual storytelling.

But Two hours forty-one minutes, and deliberately ambiguous. Some will find the ending unsatisfying rather than provocative.

Near Dark1987

Kathryn Bigelow's vampire western: lean, muscular, visually stunning. It has Phenomena's refusal to explain the supernatural and its commitment to mood over logic. A masterpiece of genre-blending.

But Sparse dialogue and slow pacing. It's closer to a tone poem than a conventional thriller.

The Neon Demon2016

Nicolas Winding Refn's fever dream about a teenage model in LA. Like Phenomena, it's shallow-plot, high-style, deeply unsettling. A film about surfaces that becomes genuinely strange.

But The plot barely moves. Some will see it as empty provocation rather than artful horror.

Creepshow1982

George A. Romero and Stephen King's gleeful horror anthology with comic-book visuals. It shares Phenomena's playful relationship with genre conventions and its willingness to be fun and scary simultaneously.

But Uneven—some segments work better than others. The anthology format means no sustained narrative.

Possession1981

Andrzej Żuławski's visceral, surreal nightmare about a marriage disintegrating in Berlin. Chaotic and deeply strange, it matches Phenomena's commitment to atmosphere over sense.

But Genuinely difficult to watch—graphic, irrational, and exhausting. Not entertaining in the conventional sense.

Trauma2004

A later Argento that returns to giallo basics: a young woman witnesses a murder and becomes hunted. If Phenomena left you wanting more Argento that doesn't require quite so much weirdness.

But A step down from his 70s work, and shows his limitations. Some find it derivative of his own earlier films.

A Dark Song2016

Both films feature protagonists with unusual powers or relationships to the supernatural, and both refuse to explain or demystify them. They share a quiet, almost matter-of-fact acceptance of the impossible.

An Irish woman hires an occultist for a lengthy ritual in an isolated house. Like Phenomena, it takes its supernatural premise absolutely seriously and builds genuine dread through commitment to its logic, whatever that logic is.

But Very slow. Long takes, minimal dialogue, a single location. Patience is not optional.

The Worm Eaters1977

Both films feature protagonists who can communicate with nature (insects vs. worms) in ways others cannot, and both treat this as genuine horror rather than fantasy adventure. Both are unashamed of their strangeness.

A cheaply made sci-fi horror about a man who communes with worms and becomes something other. Bizarre, sincere, and utterly committed to its ridiculous premise. It has the same spirit as Phenomena—earnest weirdness with zero self-consciousness.

But Low budget shows everywhere. The acting is rough and the pacing is glacial. It's genuinely obscure for good reason.