Beauty is only skin deep...beauty is in the eye of the beholder...and Dario Argento's hideously beautiful "Masters of Horror" entry, 'Jenifer' will successfully get under your skin...and make it crawl. When detective Frank Spivey (Steven Weber, "The Shining") saves a grotesquely deformed girl from a deranged, disheveled man brandishing a meat cleaver, he quickly falls under the mysterious spell of Jenifer, an otherworldly succubus with a voracious appetite. Though the episode's ending is predictable from frame one, Argento has a lot of fun (one could say too much, even) telling this warped tale (culled from an issue of "Creepy" Magazine), which follows Frank's downward spiral into madness, as his relationship with Jenifer becomes increasingly, um, involved. While many of the MOH episodes I've seen suffer from film directors having trouble adjusting to the TV format, the 66-year old Argento takes full advantage--not only is 'Jenifer' chock full of exploitation elements Euro-horror fans will adore (lots of in-your-face sex and gore), but it also radiates a genuine psychological decay in its main character, coupled with the bizarrely erotic, enigmatic appeal of Jenifer. In short, after a decade-long career slump, Argento has made a grand return to form. He mines a fine performance from Weber, and under heavy makeup, Carrie Anne Fleming exudes a contradictory blend of hideousness, sex appeal, and malevolence through body language alone. The cinematography and lighting is less nondescript than in other episodes (though working on a lower budget, Argento finds ways to assert his visual flourishes), and the score--by longtime collaborator Claudio Simonetti--is a unique character in itself (it's no "Suspiria," but sets a fitting mood). Perhaps most surprising is how disturbing the violence is rendered--while no virgin to the horror genre and its excesses, the mayhem in 'Jenifer' really got to me; additionally, two trimmed scenes (including a brief close-up of oral sex and Jenifer snacking on penis) push the boundaries of both MOH and taste in general (no pun intended). For those who have been waiting for "Masters of Horror" to pick up steam, look no further than 'Jenifer'--it joins John Landis' 'Deer Woman' and Lucky McKee's 'Sick Girl' as one of the series' finest efforts.
Review of Jenifer
