Jenifer

I gave this a 8 as compared to TV, what it was made for, if it was a big screen movie it would be considered a future cheesy classic.

Dario Argento is just having fun here, so do not read anything deep or artsy into this movie as some have. He is having a good time and getting paid. Now on to the movie.

This was fun to watch when it was not being disturbing. The whole thing is a grimace & wince fest, from the sex scenes to the cannibal scenes.That is what shock horror is all about. For a 58 min TV movie this succeeds at that wonderfully.

The effects are pretty gruesome and bloody, the girl Jennifer a wonderful mix of sex appeal and repulsion, and the poor ol' cop a kind and pathetic (when it comes to saying NO to sex) character. I enjoyed this slightly disturbing show from beginning to end. If you are not easily insulted and have a open sense of humour this is a fun way to spend a hour!

Amazingly, I haven't seen anything by Argento. I've intended to rent The Bird With Crystal Plumage, but I keep expecting that I'll hate it. Giallo flicks were never my forte.

Jenifer deals with a cop who saves a disfigured woman from being killed by a man. His concern for Jenifer grows, and winds up bringing her to stay with his family for a time. He gradually becomes obsessed with Jenifer, and protecting her comes into conflict with his feelings about her behavior.

How far do we go for love? At what point does behavior become unforgivable? Jenifer behaves like a pet in this film, to the point that she makes purring type noises as part of her seduction. The gore is strong, but brief. There is a strong amount of sex in this story, and there have been complaints about that. I considered the sex to be entirely necessary to the plot. The psychological aspects of the characters involved make these sequences indispensable. A very strong entry in the series, probably one of my favorites.

The Fourth episode of Masters of Horror is Jenifer, directed by Dario Argento (Suspiria) and written by and starring Steven Weber as Frank Spivey. Frank is a cop who one day shoots and kills a man attempting to butcher a young woman (Carrie Fleming) named Jenifer. The man tells Spivey that he "doesn't know what she is" before dying, and Jenifer - horridly disfigured - comes to live with Spivey and his family, who are repulsed by her appearance.

Steven Weber brings some much lacking star power to the series, and is a great fit as Frank. Carrie Fleming as Jenifer is an interesting performance. It is a very primal character, acting much more like an animal than anything human. It does run into a strange issue that I've been noticing with this series as it goes on, which is the strange over sexualization of its female characters. You know, with the exception of Bree Turner in the first episode (and even with that there's some contentious stuff towards the end of that) it is difficult to find a woman who is anything more than walking sex or some sort of succubus in this series.

Dario Argento directed this episode, and thus far he is the most stylized of the directors. The others have all had their distinct style, obviously, but Argento manages to pull off some big spectacle with relatively little time and money. He has always known how to play with lighting and angles to most optimize the aesthetic. The effects are gloriously cheesy, but Argento presents them in such a manner that you can either laugh at them or be disturbed by them, and either response is valid.

I can't say I like this more than Dreams in Witch House because that is more my style of horror, but this is definitely my second favorite episode of the series thus far.

Oh, also, the original score for this episode? Definitely earned it that extra half star.

While parked in a remote spot lunching Chinese food with his partner, Detective Frank Spivey (Steven Weber) saves a disfigured woman called Jenifer (Carrie Anne Fleming) from being sliced with a meat cleaver by a deranged homeless man. He feels sorry for the retarded Jenifer, and takes her from an insane asylum and brings her home. Frank becomes obsessed for Jenifer, feeling lust and attraction for her lascivious body. When he realizes that she is a human beast, he moves with her to an isolated old cabin in the woods, with tragic consequences.

"Jenifer" is a dark, bizarre, sick and creepy tale of obsession and lust directed by the great Italian director Dario Argento. The story is gore and oddly erotic, with a creepy monster with a sexy body seducing a man with personal problems. The make-up is impressive, transforming the gorgeous Carrie Anne Fleming in a woman with a totally deformed face, in a very brave role of this young actress. I found also very impressive the scene when Frank and his family find Jenifer locked in the bathroom with the family's kitty. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Jenifer – Instinto Assassino" ("Jenifer – Killer Instinct")

Directed by Dario Argento ("Suspiria"); written by Steven Weber, based on the original graphic story by Bruce Jones and Berni Wrightson; starring Steven Weber, Beau Starr and introducing Carrie Anne Fleming as "Jenifer."

Stephen King has previously outlined his blueprint for writing successfully. You go for the creeps first. If that doesn't do it, go for the scares and if that doesn't do it, go for the gross-out. For the master of Italian gialli, Dario Argento, that plan is his intentional M.O. with every film, and in this one, he works his macabre magic with almost surgical skill, bringing to life a tale so twisted, that it sears itself into your memory banks with the same intensity as the original story upon which it's based.

Writer/actor Steven Weber, (so good in Mick Garris' reworked version of King's "The Shining",) stars as world-weary cop Frank Spivey, whose life and sanity are destroyed by a fateful encounter with a young girl. Frank interrupts what appears to be a murder-in-progress: a crazed maniac wielding a meat cleaver over a bound, bedraggled, helplessly cowering figure. But even after Frank fatally shoots the man and frees the girl, all is not what it seems. Frank has just met "Jenifer," which is the only word the dying man can utter with his last breath.

Apparently mute, or unable to talk, Jenifer is graced with a body that would shame the 'Venus de Milo.' But the problem with her speech is horrifyingly clear, as the poor girl has a unnaturally deformed face that would stop a clock...especially if that clock is "Big Ben!!!" Confused by the simultaneous feelings of repulsion and sympathy that course through him, Frank takes deliberate steps to take the girl into his house, once he discovers that she is homeless. But at the core of his compassion, which his wife and son understandably don't share at all, is something compelling, disturbing and powerful that he can't deny, explain or resist...

He has fallen under Jenifer's insidious spell, and as she systematically destroys his will, his sanity and finally his life, he discovers that she is one siren/succubus whose appetite for the flesh is not limited merely to rounds of mind-blowing sex, in horrifically erotic sequences that will make you cringe and yet leave you unable to avert your eyes from what's on-screen...Argento fans will rejoice even as they're fighting their gag reflexes. This is the maestro in rare form...on a groove we haven't seen from him since the days of "Deep Red" and "Tenebrae."

Though he usually works from his own scripts, it's a pleasant surprise to see him demonstrate such even-handed confidence with material from other sources. Which is essential here, since a less-skilled hand could've turned this into a really bad Saturday Night Live skit viewed through an l.s.d. haze. Weber, in addition to having done a terrific job with adapting Jones' story, does some of his best acting ever as Frank makes the constantly shifting transitions from sympathy, to lust, to revulsion, to self-loathing, to outrage and back again.

As for Ms. Fleming, she does an amazing amount with what is basically a wordless role. All of her acting has to be done via her physicality, (and with a stunning body to begin with, she has to work at it, but not too hard), and her portrayal of a creature designed to seduce-and-destroy any (and every) man she meets is suitably compelling, disturbing and ultimately revolting.