Jenifer

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.

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")

Being a great fan of Dario Argento's works, I've been watching his latest movie with growing pain, as they invariably are unsatisfying, if not close to laughable. The Phantom of the Opera, I Can't Sleep, The Card Player, are all nothing more than big missteps from the man who gave us Deep Red, Tenebrae and Inferno. I was really happy, then, when I started reading enthusiastic reviews for Argento's entry to the Masters of Horror series. But, is the result really a return to form? Not really. The movie in itself is actually much better than Argento's latest works; but, that said, where's the originality? I was quite shocked by the fact that Jenifer's storyline is copied, completely, from the idea behind Raoul Servais' Harpya, a 1979 short animated movie. Point is: Harpya is a small gem of a movie, frightening, enigmatic, haunting, a Kafkaesque nightmare; whereas Jenifer is just an above-the-average TV horror movie, with some good moments, but overall bland and dull.

I've seen a lot of sick and disgusting movies. No big deal. But Jenifer, for some reason, seemed really sick and disturbing to me. I almost couldn't watch. I can't explain it, it wasn't the guts and gore of eating a cat, it wasn't the awful face of Jenifer. But the overall effect of it was really something. Watch this if you dare, but you will be saying to yourself (ok, more like screaming at the TV) WHAT THE...!!!

It is possible that some people will not like the ending, some even might find it predictable. But in no way is it disappointing, and in no way does it ruin the whole thing. It's a splatter of gore, just as I am used to with Dario Argento. It's not a masterpiece, but it is a very good (or should I say very evil, bad, filthy, sick) episode of the Masters of Horror series.

Dario Argento is my favourite horror film director; but even that didn't fill me with confidence going into this episode of the 'Masters of Horror' series. Thus far, all Mick Garris' series has done is brought out the worst in it's participating directors, and while Argento's instalment isn't even close to being up to his usual high standard; it's a hell of a lot better than the poor first and third showings, and I'd rate it slightly higher than Stuart Gordon's 'Dreams in Witch House'. As you'd expect from the master of bizarre Italian horror films, Jennifer is a suitably weird tale. It follows the story of a police officer who saves a young girl from being butchered. This girl has an absolutely great body; but her head doesn't match, as she's hideously deformed. After taking pity on the girl he saved, our hero takes her back to his own home; much to the dismay of his wife and son. Argento doesn't seem too bothered about offending TV viewers, as the tale is gratuitous in both sex and violence. The nudity is in your face, and the sex scenes take up a lot of the running time. The scenes of gore look like something out of a cannibal film; and I'm actually quite surprised Argento got away with it, considering how tame the other three episodes thus far were. The music comes courtesy of Claudio Simonetti; better known as a part of Argento's house band, 'Goblin'. I can't say that this bit of music is among their best work, but at least it fits the tone of the piece. The character actions are a bit questionable, but Argento manages to wrap the story up without really explaining much, which takes some skill to do. On the whole; this isn't exactly great, but it's the best episode of the series up to this point.