Phenomena 2023 Movie Review
When Father Girón ( Emilio Gutiérrez Cava ) hears about paranormal events, he knows who to turn to: Sagrario ( Belén Rueda ), Paz ( Gracia Olayo ) and Gloria ( Toni Acosta ). After all, the three are absolute luminaries when it comes to guiding spirits and other supernatural beings. He also builds on that when he learns of an antique shop where things are said to be not right. In fact, it doesn’t take long for Girón to realize that there’s something really evil roaming the house. What begins as a routine case threatens to turn into an absolute disaster, and only by joining forces do the three friends have a chance of getting out of the story alive…
There’s no shortage of horror titles. Several films that are at home in this genre are reliably released on DVD every month. You can also find them regularly in the cinemas, this month, for example, The Pope’s Exorcist and Evil Dead Rise have been replenished. The streaming services are also always happy to be there when it comes to teaching the audience to fear. In theory at least. In practice, the flood of genre representatives means that many must inevitably go under. If you don’t have a few stars with whom to drum up advertising, ideally you should have something in terms of content that allows you to differentiate yourself from the competition. The Spanish film Phenomena shows what this can look like, which is available exclusively on Netflix .
More specifically, it’s the main characters that are out of the ordinary here. In principle, there are no laws that determine who takes up the fight against evil in this genre. And yet it is often quite interchangeable what is presented to us as an area of identification. Phenomena is a laudable exception if we follow three women over 50 here. How many horror movies are there that can claim that? Of course there are always strong women in the genre. Jamie Lee Curtis is famous for dressing up in Halloweendidn’t want to simply surrender to a superhuman serial killer. At least in this respect, horror films are often more advanced than others. However, heroines of advanced age are still a rarity, Lin Shaye is still an exception in the Insidious films.
The badass attitude of the three friends is offset a little by the humor. Officially, Phenomena is a pure horror film. At least in the first half there are so many deliberately humorous scenes that it would be more appropriate to classify it as a horror comedy. Director Carlos Therón doesn’t even necessarily need any slapstick interludes. A lot of things result from the characters and the dynamics between the three women. The really big laughs don’t jump out. But it’s quite amusing and you enjoy watching the idiosyncratic trio take on the bad guys and somehow have to get out of it.
The setting is also worth a look. Almost the entire film takes place inside the antique shop. Surely that’s also due to the budget, it won’t have been that high with the Spanish production. But it offers enough for the eye and adds to the charm. Phenomena may not be an absolute genre highlight , but that’s not enough for that, both in terms of the ideas and the tension. But it’s enough for a solid and likeable representative that stands on its own two feet, at least to some extent. Should there be a sequel, which would be quite conceivable in this scenario, it may well be a little more interesting story. The unique selling proposition of the three heroines should then no longer be sufficient.
Three women in their 50s who hunt ghosts and demons? That is something different. Overall, the humorous “Phänomena” is a likeable horror film that pleases with its setting of an antique shop. It might not be the big genre highlight, but it’s solid enough to take a look.
