What other director besides Dario Argento could take the following and actually make them work? Let's see what we have here. A young girl who can communicate with insects, a chimpanzee who carries a razor blade, Donald Pleasence with a bad Scottish accent, a psycho killer on the loose, and Daria Nicolodi showing us she really can't act worth a shit. Any lesser talent would have bumbled it completely, yet as he usually does, Argento comes up with something pretty damn good.

A young Jennifer Connelly (my, how she has since grown) is sent to a boarding school in the "Swiss Transylvania" by her actor father. Once there, her roommate tells her of a killer who stalks the school's young girls by night, with a penchant for beheading them. Of course, that doesn't stop any of these girls from going out in the middle of the night by themselves does it? Oh well. Young Jennifer befriends Pleasence, who plays a kindly professor studying insects and who helps Jennifer to come to grips with her bug power. For some reason she can communicate with insects, a talent that makes her a little less than popular at school, where she is taunted by her peers for her strange ability. Now, the bug communication thing is not really the main point of the film, that would reside in the typical black-gloved killer whom is stalking the area. Jennifer's bug power is basically just a side attraction to the murders, which are shown in typical Argento fashion: beautifully shot and violent as can be. This is one of Argento's most visually stunning films, and is loaded with atmosphere. Check out that opening shot of the camera swooping up into the trees, as a young girl is about to meet her doom. Very cool. Plenty of creepy shots of trees blowing in the wind, shadows on gothic buildings and the like. Next to "Inferno" and "Suspiria", this has to be one of Argento's most atmospheric films. Sure it's way short on logic, and I'm still not really sure who the actual killer was, but I enjoyed this one immensely. Avoid the U.S. print titled "Creepers", which was cut by about 30 minutes, and get yourself the letterboxed Anchor Bay print to truly soak this one up. Righteous stuff.