Horror Movie Review: Ænigma (1987)

Lucio Fulci ripping off Carrie? Yes, please! It’s Ænigma and it is a mess of a film. An entertaining mess though. Directed by Fulci, who co-wrote the story and screenplay with Giorgio Mariuzzo, Ænigma stars Jared Martin, Lara Naszinsky, and Ulli Reinthaler.

Kathy, a young woman at a boarding school for girls, is relentlessly bullied by the popular girls. She has a crush on the gym teacher, Fred Vernon, so the girls and the teacher decide to team up and prank her. Fred convinces her to go on a date, and when parked in the woods, Kathy leans in for a kiss. It is at this point that her tormenters arrive to mock her, and Kathy runs away humiliated. They chase after her, resulting in Kathy being hit by a car and ending up in a coma.

Sometime later, a new girl named Eva Gordon arrives at the school and is given Kathy’s old room, who remains in her coma. Eva fits in nicely, meeting some of the people responsible for Kathy’s injuries, and hitting it off with them. All of this is more than just a coincidence though, and it’s not long before those involved in the prank start to turn up dead.

Just who is to blame? Kathy? But she is in a coma. Eva? She seems to be completely unconnected. Kathy’s mother who works at the school as a cleaner? She seems far too depressed. How about someone no-one would suspect? Who knows! It’s a mystery and the actual answer is hilariously silly, giving the film an unexpected supernatural twist. Yes, this is not a slasher horror, even if the premise is set up like one.

No, this is a paranormal horror and that is how we get deaths that include being murdered by a shadow. Being suffocated by snails, crushed by a marble statue, and falling out of a window. It’s all very silly but done in the most serious of ways, which does at least make things more entertaining. Although the poor cast have a rough time trying to make it feel believable.

Often, these sequences serve as a good distraction from the story too, which ties itself up in knots trying to resolve all its plot threads. There’s far more going on here than just revenge killings. The film also wants to do romance and sex, delve deeply into the complexities of what is going on with Eva and Kathy, say something about trauma, and explain how the paranormal aspects work. Yet, the writing simply isn’t good enough to make most of this matter.

I’m not sure I care though. It’s not a memorable film overall, but it has memorable moments (the snail death alone) and I found myself entertained by it. It could have benefited from not taking itself too seriously, but that’s Fulci for you.