Still thinking of this movie after watching it for the first time the other night. It was wild. Entirely off the rails insane. In the best way possible. I don’t even know how to really begin describing this movie without walking through what the hell was going on in the movie. It seems like a simple enough premise, but then there will be a scene or effect that completely baffles you to the point that you will be tempted to stop and rewind until you just give up and move on. Don’t. Turn off the lights. Put down the phone and pay attention. You’ll be clueless by the end of it, but you’ll fall head over heels…

Tonight’s watch, Aenigma, directed by Lucio Fulci and starring Jared Martin and Lara Lamberti.

My favorite part of this is that I’ve only seen the DVD cover as censored by the public library. Or maybe it’s unintentionally censored and the image behind the library label is innocuous. However, the real joy is that it is identified as part of “The Euroshock Collection.” I was more mystified when I found out it was from the 80s. The production quality and effects have a total late 70s vibe but we’re closer to 1990 and the height of the VHS era.

Italian horror icon Lucio Fulci begins his coming of age psycho-thriller with an English sentimental song about looking good and falling in love set over your typical nerdy girl glow up. Immediately we discover this is our ostracized Italian version of Carrie as our montage ends and we discover the girl is being pranked by the popular kids at a Boston prep school.

I’ve always been iffy with Italian horror as most of what I’ve seen are giallo films, and I have a hard time with the synchronization of the dubbing. Its also why I’ve avoided a lot of Hong Kong releases as the English dubbing is usually too distracting.

Italian horror seemed to have the habit of trying to make an audience believe it was an American movie, and I do have to say that 70s and 80s Italian filmmakers did a great job at it. IF that American movie was made by Stuart Gordon or Larry Cohen. Which I think most Italian horror films I’m thinking of precede or were released around the same time as the two’s most popular films. There are obviously a few exceptions, but most seem to have that kitschy flair I associate with Q the Winged Serpent (damn was that Valejo poster badass). So much so, you almost expect Michael Moriarty to show up in the credits.

Our main protagonist is introduced in an overly blue saturation that screams European cinema with her figure interchanged with our ostracized Italian Carrie from the opening in some quick stop motion effect. I’m not sure if this was to make us think this new girl is also going to be the target of college pranks, or if it just wanted to make a connection between Italian Carrie’s naivete to the opposite sex or just let us know they’re connected.

We aren’t directly told there is a time jump, but it seems like the opening sequence of the prank has a 1950s aesthetic, and The overtly sexual and bright tones of the 80s take over as we find out that our protagonist Eva is a sexpot whose only goal is to make out with as many boys as possible (her words). So we re-meet Fred, the overtly sexual fitness instructor who pretended to woo the girl from the beginning, and some crazy stuff starts to occur. Including, finding out that our girl from the beginning is in fact still alive, and there was no weird time jump (I must have misread the beginning).

Quickly the blue saturation returns as our protagonist shares a “cigarette” and we discover exactly what happened in the beginning. Fred, tired of the attention from Cathy, the mentally unstable (maybe?) and potentially psychic maid, Mary’s, daughter, decided with some of the other girls at St. Mary (connection?) College, to prank Cathy, and *best Valley Girl Dub voice* it was like a total gas.

The weird ways Euorpean movies try to make the movies seem American will always be fun for me. In this one, the mysterious, and honestly unsettling, maid character offers the girls some lunch consisting of snails…in Boston… and everyone is just like “they eat them in New Orleans. I think Mary’s from there.” And Eva is like “I’m from New Orleans. We eat them like the French do!” And everyone just agrees. There’s also a Sylvester Stallone poster on a girl’s wall like she’s flicking her Boston Baked Bean to Rocky at this boarding school.

Eva continues to to have a weird connection to whatever is going on in the college. I wasn’t able to pin down what exactly was happening to her. We are told she had a nervous breakdown and that is why shes at this boarding school, but she

seems to be having weird psychic connections to Cathy as hinted at with our weird image flicker at her introduction.

Speaking of Cathy, the make-up department did some great wound work on Cathy’s cheek. Every now and then we cut to Cathy in her bed either to discover more weird brain spikes (revenge attacks) or maniacal homicidal laughter (Eva possessions) and you get some really good looks of it. There is a green tone to the skin that recalls images of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein and to help us realize Cathy is in a vegetative state.

I think this movie has really piqued my interest into Italian horror. For over half of the movie I had no idea what was going on as weirder and weirder things began happening with no explanation. Like pythons making rattlesnake noises. It also took some figuring out when Eva is possessed or just Eva. Like, I know Fulci is famous for having a zombie fight a shark, so it shouldn’t have surprised me to find that this was going to be out there.

If there’s one thing I need to take away from this viewing is to to remember that Italian horror requires 1) your attention 2) getting rid of all expectations, and 3) just when you think you have it figured out you will immediately be proven wrong.

I write these little reviews and breakdowns as I watch the movie, and so I found myself back spacing and going, “whelp never mind” quite frequently. I think the protagonist changed four times. I’m not even joking. And damn that ending came out of nowhere. Like literally, that climax was quicker than a rabbit.

Definitely go into this one with an open mind and low expectations and you will have found yourself a great little treat of a horror film that anyone whose seen it would probably agree is good, but it makes no sense. No plot messing with the story here. Just scene and atmosphere and psychic powers that make no sense. Turn your head for two seconds and you’ll be lost. Love it.

⭐️⭐️

Check it out from the Cabell County Public Library

https://cabellcounty.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/test

*THIS POST AND THE A to Z Horror REVIEWS ARE NOT PROVIDED, ENDORSED, or SPONSORED by Cabell County Public Library*

**Update** There’s a naked breast on the cover. Kudos to the library censors for catching that nip slip, though its honestly barely visible.