Phenomena

Just saw this Dario Argento film ... sometimes called Creepers. What a strange film. Jennifer Connolly is excellent - although she has this spooky quality which I'm not sure is wholly acting or not. Donald Pleasance with a Scottish accent takes a little getting used to as well. Overall it's a bit of a jumble of ideas, elements of Suspiria mixed in there with stuff about being able to control insects and so on. Some nice decaying bodies - Argento loves those maggots - but the cinematography was a little bland I thought. Also saw recently, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and this is another mish-mash of ideas which never really gels. I loved the Invisible Man out of all of them - he seemed the only one with any character. The rest are pretty faceless. I wondered how Mina, being a vampire, could wander around in daylight, and Nemo's ship seemed way to big to head through the canals of Venice ... Some nice effects in there, but overall nowhere near as good as it could have been. The Haunted Mansion ... yes, I can watch Disney as well. Generally dreadful, but with some of the best zombies I've yet seen! Total cudos to the Master Dick Smith on that front. I guess it might be appealing to children (which is who it seems to be aimed at) but the zombie sequence is way better and more scary than anything I've seen in many a 'proper' zombie film ... go figure. I've also just got hold of a pile of new DVDs (Virgin were having a 40% discount sale) and so expect tales of many more films in coming weeks.