Masters of Horror - Dario Argento - Jenifer
Leave it to Dario Argento (Suspiria) to cook up a truly stomach-flipping installment in Showtime'sMasters of Horrorseries. Argento's hour-longJeniferhas an uncluttered through-line that combines a relentlessly destructive film noir plot with zombie attitude. Steven Weber plays a cop who kills a man about to harm a disfigured woman named Jenifer. Weber finds himself strangely protective of the girl, who incidentally has enough sexual appetite to tempt him away from everything sane and holy. Unfortunately, she has other appetites as well, which spells trouble for the odd child (or housecat) who might be taken as a snack. Weber's downward spiral is predictable enough, but there's something in almost every scene that makes you shiver--either overtly (Jenifer chomping down on entrails) or indirectly (the way trees ripple as a car moves into the forest). Jenifer is played by Carrie Anne Fleming, wearing a prosthetic horror mask and flimsy negligee, an unsettling combination of repulsive/sexy that Argento exploits to the maximum. The trim script is by Steven Weber, from a short story by Bruce Jones; the excellent music is by Claudio Simonetti, whose ensemble Goblin did the music for other Argento films and the originalDawn of the Dead.--Robert Horton