Jenifer (Dario Argento, 2005)

For his episode of Showtime's brilliant (in concept, not always in execution) series Masters of Horror, Dario Argento takes a teleplay written by Steven Weber, who also stars, about a deformed girl named Jenifer who has strange powers over men. Jenifer's face is rather horrifying, especially the first time you see it, and she is unable to talk and often acts like an angry cat. Weber plays a police officer who saves her from being murdered, then falls victim to her powers (even after she does things like eat his cat). And that's pretty much it. The gore, of which there is a pretty good amount, is realistic looking, but there aren't really any actual scares. Nor does the audience ever find out any more about Jenifer than what she does in the present. I was dying to know how she got deformed, where these powers come from, and even if she was human or not, but the audience never gets that much. It's all surface here, which is entertaining enough, but not enough to make it one of the better MOH episodes I've seen. Speaking of which, Takashi Miike's banned Imprint comes out on DVD September 26th, and I haven't been this excited to see a movie since...I don't know. I'm just psyched. So, unless you're a die-hard horror/Argento fan (which I am), you might want to pass on Jenifer. 6/10

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