Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Phenomena’ on Netflix, an Amusing Horror-Comedy About a Trio of Bickering Lady Ghost Hunters

Phenomena (now on Netflix) is not to be confused with the movie of the same title directed by Dario Argento and starring a young Jennifer Connelly as a girl who can talk to bugs – although I may have just inspired myself to revisit that one. No, this new movie is a Spanish ghost story that’s allegedly a BOATS (Based On A True Story) movie of sorts, about a group of paranormal investigators who apparently exist outside the reach of Google (at least in English language searches) so we’ll just have to take the movie’s INSPIRED BY REAL EVENTS title card by its word. Not that it really matters – it’s funny how an alleged BOATS movie can be so much like other movies, specifically the quasi-BOATS movie The Conjuring, which also is a quirky period piece about ghost hunters. But maybe Phenomena has something fresh to offer? Let’s find out.

PHENOMENA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: MADRID, 1998. Father Giron (Emilio Gutierrez Caba) pokes around an old antique shop and is felled by mysterious forces, hospitalized, unconscious. This looks like a job for his supernatural-expert friends, who investigate hauntings and bumps in the night and that kind of stuff: Gloria (Toni Acosta), a gifted medium and heavy smoker; Paz (Gracia Olayo), who documents strange goings-on with cameras and recorders when she isn’t smoking heavily; and Sagrario (Belen Rueda), a believer hoping to one day reunite with her dearly departed husband, who also lights one up at every opportunity. They’re fame frequently precedes them – they’re often recognized for their past high-profile paranormal investigations, and possibly for their constant smoking. They also come with some baggage: Gloria is no longer happy with this strange life, and is studying to be a pharmacist. Paz would rather be doting on her grandchildren. And Sagrario desperately desires closure in the wake of her husband’s passing. They’re also at an incredibly high risk for lung cancer.

But alas, real life must be put on hold when there’s some creepy bullshit going on that they feel obligated to address, especially since Father Giron is the one who assembled this crack unit of human tobacco chimneys. Before they head to the antique shop, they try to call on their theoretical-physicist pal to join them, but he sends a highly skeptical student “intern,” Pablo (Oscar Ortuno), in his stead. The four of them meet with the nice couple who own the shop, and it goes poorly, because the guy, a doofus who sweats uncontrollably, ends up being possessed by an entity that is quite clearly not repelled by B.O. – or cigarette smoke, for that matter. And so our intrepid heroes get out their camcorders, ouija board and crystal balls (and cartons of Pall Malls or whatever) and get to work.

Thing is, Paz, Gloria and Sagrario don’t really get along. The only thing they have in common is their interest in ghosts and shit, and their curiously non-nicotine-stained teeth. They bicker a lot and smoke even more. Seriously, it’s a running joke, punctuated by a shot in which Gloria can’t find her crystal ball and dumps out her purse and out tumbles umpteen packs of lung darts. Partial smoking bans weren’t enacted in Spain until 2006, so they were free to inhale carcinogens at will, and they do. Maybe it takes the edge off when they’re pulling furniture aside to squeeze into dark secret corridors and find the source of disturbing moans and whatnot. But do they ever run out of cigs and get the jitters, and it throws off their ouija exercises? Do they ever cough up some tar from their lungs and reveal their position to the ethereal presence they’re trying to hide from? I have questions.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The three Conjurings and the all-female Ghostbusters, but more so TV series like Buffy and The X-Files, but crossed with Golden Girls and Murder, She Wrote.

Performance Worth Watching: Among the core trio, Acosta finds the firmest serio-comic footing, taking the material seriously, but not too seriously.  

Memorable Dialogue: Uh oh. Gloria needs to be rescued from nefarious unexplained forces:

Sagrario: She saved my life twice.

Paz: But I don’t owe her anything.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Phenomena feels like a movie-length pilot for a future TV series: It teases past interpersonal wranglings and a superfriends origin story that seem ripe for flashbacks, establishes a conflict that feels like the first of an episodic monster-of-the-week formula, and initiates character arcs that aren’t close to complete (although none of our character arcs will ever be complete, because such is life, right?). It then teases with a mid-credits scene suggesting that this isn’t the last time we’ll see this core trio of plucky, resourceful lady heroes up to their elbows in ectoplasm and cigarette butts.

The story here isn’t particularly memorable – a boilerplate haunting, pointlessly overcomplicated and tied to the group’s past adventures, stirs up a bit of creepy atmosphere, inspires a few halfway-decent jokes and ends with the kind of histrionics that leave the protagonists bedraggled and very wet, but not worse for the wear. Thankfully, Ruedo, Acosta and Olayo find a humorous and suggestive chemistry implying a begrudging respect, and maybe even affection, among characters who are constantly sniping at each other and might never be in each other’s company if it wasn’t for the combined weight of their talents and accomplishments. If this particular outing isn’t memorable beyond the light acrimony of their interactions, there are plenty of signs that this group will build upon it for future endeavors. Maybe they could get matching uniforms – may I suggest some gear from the Camel Cash catalog?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Phenomena is a little stale in premise, but spirited enough in execution to warrant a watch.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.