The story of Jenifer is the tale of the ultimate jealous girlfriend, who is a subservient, but very jealous person who claims her mates and then clings on to them serving what she feels they desire. To the monster Jenifer, she sees eating humans as eliminating rivals and basically giving her mate her own gifts. The story not only confronts the whole aspect of this grotesque girl, but examines the lolita-esque attraction with this man who–in spite of her face–still possesses a sexual obsession with her. As per Argento’s style, the tension is ripe from the very beginning, as the mystery Argento usually works on mounts. And there’s a great amount of gore that Nicotero works on including some genitalia munching (literally), and gorging on innards that never cuts away. So–this is all they gave Dario Argento to work with, eh?
Because, I could have invented a story that not only would have flexed the skills of the cast, but of the director as well, but with “Jenifer”, the latest story in the “MOH” series that is now directed by Dario Argento, I was disappointed, and it ends up being immensely anti-climactic. Perhaps, I expected too much from Argento–perhaps I expect too much of this series, because as the season goes on and on I find the gradual lack of quality episode by episode to be sorely disturbing, and “Jenifer” is a surefire sign of that. “Jenifer” is gross and often times disturbing, but it’s also a really dumb premise with no real room to flex it’s plot, so most of it ends up being incredibly repetitive, almost like a condensed “Fatal Attraction” supernatural style. Star Weber who also wrote the script never seems to be able to break out from the concept and propose a logical story, so the entire episode feels like a series of events tacked together to form what looks like a coherent plot. Argento’s style is also missing here where the episode is played as camp instead of dark and grim, and the violence ends up as routine.
Weber’s character as an officer is the one who discovers a man about to decapitate a young girl (Carrie Ann Fleming) and shoots the man who is frantically trying to warn him. He shoots the man dead and helps the girl whose face is utterly atrocious. With large pitch black eyes and a face that resembles that of a cats, she’s taken to a facility, but when Weber comes home to his dysfunctional family of basic archetypes that present a dysfunctional family (ignorant child, angst ridden son, doting wife ), he discovers he’s having a hard time getting her off his mind and becomes sexual infatuated by her in spite of her face. This leads to less than inspiring scenes between the two as well as repetitive sex sequences. It’s clear this girl is not a human, but more of a creature who picks her mates and becomes basically obsessed with them, killing anything in her path.
This installment was goofy, even for Argento whose works consist of very dark and gory serial killer tales, but this was often played for camp, camp that made me cringe than engrossed. Weber’s character is an utter cliché, a tough talking cop who is abusive and unhappy with his home life, his reactions to Jenifer’s murders are very funny holding his hands to his head and laughing, it would indicate madness if Weber knew how to give a convincing performance here. “Jenifer” begins with repetitious sequences of events, and ends with the predictable repetitious sequences of events that are anything but suspenseful of intriguing. What a shame. I’m saddened that Argento’s installment, the one I was looking forward to, ended up being the weakest episode yet. Played as more horror comedy than actual horror “Jenifer” is a flawed and repetitive story, with over the top acting, mediocre writing, and a toned down style of direction.