- AKA “Creepers”
- Directed by Dario Argento
- Written by Dario Argento
- Stars Jennifer Connelly, Donald Pleasence, Daria Nicolodi
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 56 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upUJetCHYFc
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Superb direction, an interesting story, and skillful acting save a movie that’s actually kind of long, slow, and talky. It’s weird with lots of creepy moments, especially if bugs freak you out. All in all, a thumbs up.
Synopsis
A bus stops in the mountains, but then drives off, leaving one girl behind. She walks to a nearby house and yells for help. She goes inside, and we see something pulling at chains in the house– it breaks free. The off-screen person attacks her with chains and scissors. She runs outside into the mountainous terrain outside, where she’s finally stabbed to death. The person then cuts off her head and throws it in the river before dragging the body off.
Later, we see a monkey walking around outside. Professor McGregor is an insect scientist who helps solve cases for the police. The monkey is his pet, Inga. He’s wheelchair bound, and she’s his “nurse,” who fetches things for him. He explains how certain insects appear on dead bodies at certain stages and intervals, and these explain a lot about when a body has died. He has the dead girl’s head, and he can look at the bugs to determine that she died eight months and fifteen days ago. Inspector Geiger is there, and he puts it in line with “the other girls” who have gone missing. Yes, there’s a serial killer in the area.
Jennifer Corvino arrives in “The Swiss Transylvania.” She’s the daughter of a famous actor. There’s a bee in the car, and Jennifer defends it saying, “insects never hurt me; I love them.” She tames the bee. She’s going to the International School for Girls.
Jennifer meets her roommate, Sophie, and the headmistress, who blames Jennifer for her plane being late. The headmistress is not friendly. Sophie is a big fan of Jennifer’s father, the famous actor. That night, Jennifer has a nightmare about a girl being chased into an old church. Then she dreams about a long hallway with many doors, but in real life, she’s sleepwalking on the roof of the school. In her dream, she sees the girl who was being chased, but the girl is killed and the real Jennifer falls off the roof.
She’s OK, but she walks in front of a car and gets knocked down. The two boys in the car pick her up and dump her in the woods a few miles away.
Jennifer sits in the trees until Inga the chimp comes and leads her to Professor McGregor, who cleans her up and examines her. She doesn’t have any memory of her dream or how she got there. The two talk about insects, and about her natural affinity for bugs. The insect in his hand wants to mate with Jennifer, but it’s not the mating season; that’s strange, he thinks.
The next day, the headmistress insists that she get an EEG. The doctor at the mental hospital thinks this is the first step towards schizophrenia or another personality trying to emerge. Jennifer gets angry and walks out; she calls her father to complain, but he’s out of town for three days.
That night, Sophie notices someone outside shining a spotlight on her window. She puts on one of Jennifer’s shirts and sneaks out. It’s her boyfriend, but the boyfriend is really interested in hearing more about Jennifer. He can’t stay long, so Sophie is left outside alone to be chased by the killer, who stabs her with what appears to be a spear. Jennifer goes outside and walks through the woods. A firefly comes to her, and she follows it. She picks up a glove and goes back inside. There are maggots on the glove, and they “tell” her about the murder.
The headmistress thinks Jennifer is crazy. Jennifer goes to McGregor about the maggots and tells him everything, even about the firefly leading her to it and the maggots. He believes that insects have low-key paranormal powers and telepathy. The headmistress and other students learn about all this by reading Jennifer’s diary; they really think she’s crazy now and everyone torments her. She summons a huge swarm of insects that crawl all over the building, and everyone stops laughing.
The headmistress quickly comes to the conclusion that Jennifer is demonic and calls the doctor for the mental hospital to come and get her. She sneaks out and goes to the professor’s house. He gives her a “sarcophagus beetle” and says it will lead the way to dead bodies, all she has to do is listen to it.
She and the bug get on a bus out toward the mountains. They get off at exactly the place where the girl in the beginning went. She walks to the abandoned house and goes inside. She runs into a real estate agent, who accuses her of coming there to steal.
Inspector Geiger arrives and talks to the real estate agent, and he wants answers.
At the professor’s house, Inga the chimp gets locked outside and can’t get back in. McGregor hears him yelling outside and goes downstairs to let him inside. We see someone turn the elevator off halfway down the stairs. The killer then stabs the old doctor with his spear. Inga jumps on top of the killer’s car as they drive away, but the loyal companion gets thrown off.
Jennifer and a crowd watches as the police carry out the professor’s dead body. Inspector Geiger talks to the man who runs the mental hospital. He wants to know about someone who broke in, not escaped.
Jennifer talks to her father’s agent to ask for money, but he’s not very helpful. Inga the monkey is still loose and finds a straight razor in a garbage can. Jennifer goes to the bank to pick up money from her father’s agent, but it doesn’t arrive. Instead, she meets Frau Bruckner, who says she will buy a ticket back to America for her.
Jennifer goes home with Bruckner for the night, as her flight doesn’t leave until morning. Ms. Bruckner has all the mirrors in the house covered, as her young son is sick and doesn’t want to see his own reflection. She says it’s better if Jennifer doesn’t see him. Bruckner also insists that she take sleeping pills; she’s very bossy.
Jennifer goes into the bathroom and finds those maggots in there on the soap. She remembers the professor’s words about that species, that they live exclusively off human remains. Bruckner whacks her over the head when she comes out of the bathroom. The inspector drives up in his car, but Bruckner closes steel shutters and locks the door to keep Jennifer inside.
Bruckner talks to the inspector outside. She tells how she was attacked fifteen years ago in the mental hospital.
Jennifer wakes up and hears a man’s voice screaming somewhere in the house. She tries to pull the phone up by the cord, but loses it completely.
Meanwhile, Jennifer’s father’s agent arrives by plane; he had nothing to do with Bruckner.
Jennifer finds a hole in the floor and crawls through a tunnel to find the telephone that fell down there. She’s grabbed by inspector Geiger, who is chained to the wall. She falls into a big gloopy pit full of water, maggots, and decomposing corpses. Bruckner comes in to gloat, and Geiger beats her to death.
Jennifer gets out of the pit and runs down a hallway to find a little boy crying in the corner. She turns him around, and he really is quite deformed. She runs outside to the boat dock and starts a boat motor, but the little boy chases after her with a spear.
She screams in terror at the monstrous little boy, and swarms of insects rain down on him. He tries to fight them off, but they completely cover him. They eat him alive until he falls overboard. The boat catches fire, and she has to jump overboard. Soon, the entire lake is on fire, and she has to swim underwater to escape the flames– except the little boy is down there too, and he’s not dead. He surfaces and burns, but she escapes.
Morris the agent drives by at exactly the right time to pick Jennifer up, but Bruckner comes out of nowhere to behead him. She admits that she killed Geiger and McGregor, and she’s just about to behead Jennifer as well– until she’s stabbed in the back by Inga the monkey.
Commentary
This was Dario Argento’s favorite of his own films. It was also Jennifer Connelly’s first starring role– “Labyrinth” came out the following year.
The soundtrack is especially good. It’s very atmospheric and visual, although the plot is slow and may be a little too talky. Overall, it’s good, but a little slow for a modern audience– but it’s very weird though, which makes it worth it.