"I'll show you which one of us is crazy."

I'm starting to reassess my partnership with Death.

You might think it would be cool all the famous souls he's brought me over the past year, but it's starting to feel like he's trying just a little too hard. If a friend brings you a present, you might say, "Oh how thoughtful. I didn't even know how much I needed that. Thank you ever so much," but if that same friend brings you a present every couple weeks for a whole year, you start to wonder what it is they're after, like they're building up credit in the favor bank because they're about to ask for something big, uncomfortable and inconvenient.

Maybe I just think that way because I'm evil and so are most of my colleagues, but that's how I think.

Then sometimes I think, man, I haven't watched a good movie with a ton of maggots in it in a while.

This week's Thursday Thriller is Phenomena.

This 1985 Dario Argento film is about Jennifer (Jennifer Connelly), a pop star's daughter who's been shipped off to a fancy Swiss boarding school. Jennifer has a psychic connection with insects and.there's a maniac on the loose near the school who likes to kill girls who are Jennifer's age.

One night Jennifer goes sleepwalking and witnesses a murder, then falls in the middle of the street, where two guys in a convertible pick her up and drive off with her. She puts up too much of a fight for their liking, so they throw her out of the car into the woods. As luck would have it, a smiling chimpanzee was in the neighborhood and takes Jennifer by the hand to meet Professor John McGregor, an entomologist. The two become instant friends because they like bugs.

Were you aware insects can be used to fight crime?

Back at school, the headmistress is angry at Jennifer for sneaking out at night. Then she gets angry at Jennifer for summoning a swarm of insects to cover the building when the other students are taunting her. The headmistress tries to have Jennifer committed to a psych ward.

Jennifer escapes back to McGregor's lab, where he shows her a fly whose larvae only feeds on dead bodies. He sends Jennifer off with one such fly in the hope that it will lead her to where the murderer is hiding the remains of his or her victims. I'd say she succeeds, more or less, then a bunch of gross, weird stuff happens. I'd rather not spoil it for you, though.

Phenomena is like Suspiria with bugs. Its soundtrack includes music by Goblin, Iron Maiden and Motorhead. It streams on Amazon Prime.