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.

This episode is very disturbing, but that is what it makes it good. This is one of those times where despite someting being distrurbing or "wrong," you can't help but watch and are drawn in more, fitting the overall theme of the episode.

The make up on Jennifer is phenominal, perhaps the best in the entire show. They took Carrie Anne-Fleming who was a rather attractive actress back then (Google her), and gave her a horribly, repulsively disfigured face that will straight up gross you out. A literal stuff of nightmares. And despite that face, Jennifer still manages to pull a powerful sex appeal over any man she meets, making this episode all the more twisted.

What starts as an innocent attempt to help a disfigured and possibly mentally handicapped woman, turns into dark obsession that soon takes over the Main Character's life. The story is simple enough but works, with decent acting all around.

The ending is very predicatble as you know where the episode will have to ultimately end up, yet I still think it works. Despite its predictability, the ending doesn't deminish the story, and if anything sells it more. It made me wonder how long has this macabre gone on for, and will it ever end? It's rare to see predictability and repuslion work so well, and thus I award this episode 8/10.

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.

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.

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.