User Reviews

I didn't have high expectations going into this, which is the right way to approach it. I mostly wanted to see the infamous death-by-snail scene, which did not disappoint.

The film didn't make a lot of sense in general, but it's mostly well shot and has Fulci's trademark atmosphere and grit.

Overall, there's nothing earth shattering, but its story is told in unusual ways and I enjoyed it. That's good enough for me.

Judging by the amount of other user-comments and their content around here, this "Aenigma" (love the alternate spelling!) is a lesser known and thoroughly hated Lucio Fulci film. Well sure, it's not a patch on his earlier work but still it remains a remotely enjoyable bloodbath with some inventive killings (the snails!!) and an appealing cast of young & sexy schoolgirls. The story, although highly unoriginal, is easy to follow, unpretentious and fast-paced. Black sheep of Catholic girl's dorm Kathy is involved in a near-fatal car accident after a prank with the school's gym teacher. Shortly after, a new and extrovert girl makes her entry in the dorm but her mind seems controlled by the comatose Kathy. Through Eva Gordon, Kathy and her spiritual mother see a chance for revenge, starting with the death of the insufferable macho gym teacher. Fulci keeps the gore under control this time and focuses more on the brooding atmosphere. "Aenigma" features some beautiful camera-work, although admittedly, the same camera angles are often re-used several times. The girls' acting is extremely hammy and it's a good thing they all all look so cute, otherwise it would have been a lot more difficult to struggle yourself through the movie. Nothing spectacular or special, but it certainly isn't terrible, neither.

The spirit of a comatose teenage girl possesses the body of a newcomer to her girls boarding school to enact bloody revenge against the elitist, lingerie-clad coeds responsible for her condition.

Donald C. Willis described the film as a "episodic horror-fantasy variation on 'Carrie' by way of 'Patrick' and 'The Medusa Touch'" and that the "heavy-handed intro" makes the film get "off to a bad start". He forgot "Slugs", though this film is nastier than "Slugs" and may be worth watching for that very reason.

The interesting thing is how this is a Yugoslavian film. What? I feel like that deserves more of an explanation. I know that Romania was popular for a while to film on the cheap, but you rarely hear about Yugoslavia. What was Fulci doing there?

The late Lucio Fulci, director of numerous Italian gore classics, obviously deemed gastropods so terrifying that he gave them starring roles as slimy killers in Ænigma, a 1987 clunker that clumsily blended elements of Carrie and Patrick to tell the tale of a comatose girl out to seek revenge on those responsible for her condition.

In the snails' unforgettably daft scene, a girl awakens to find herself smothered by the slow-moving molluscs, who ultimately suffocate the poor lass, covering her from head to foot in slime. It's just one bad moment out of many bad moments in a very bad film.

Ænigma opens with a young woman named Kathy (Milijana Zirojevic) excitedly preparing for a date (with the help of her friends) by selecting a nasty red dress and plastering on her make-up like a clown. Once ready for her night of romance (gold eyelids—check!; red cheeks—check!; hideous hairstyle—check!), the girl rushes to the door to meet her lucky beau.

Later that night, the couple park in a remote spot for a bit of canoodling. Kathy soon gets into the mood, and begins to moan loudly and writhe in pleasure, much to the delight of the small crowd of onlookers hiding in the bushes. Yes, Kathy is the subject of a mean school prank: the guy she is getting all gooey over doesn't really go for the minging clown look; he's only with the poor lass in order to humiliate her in front of his pals.

Realising the truth, Kathy runs away in tears, only to be hit by a car, ultimately ending up in intensive care.

Meanwhile, at the exclusive boarding school where Kathy lived with her mother, new student Eva Gordon (Lara Naszinsky) is getting used to her new environment. However, fitting in with the other girls might not prove to be easy, since Eva is being telepathically controlled by Kathy, who is looking to even the score with her bullies...

I get the distinct feeling that, with this particular film, Fulci was attempting a more stylish approach than usual:Ænigma is rather restrained in the gore department, and the boarding school setting and general ambiance is very reminiscent of the work of giallo genius Dario Argento. Unfortunately, Fulci is not quite in the same league as Argento when it comes to creating stunning visuals and a dreamlike atmosphere, and the result is a rather bland and unmemorable effort that leaves one longing for some yucky eyeball trauma or a bit of messy brain scrunching to spice things up.

The story, a weak mix of elements stolen from several much better films, doesn't make much sense (no explanation is given for how Kathy can conjure up snails and, in one equally silly scene, animate a marble statue), and the majority of the cast is pretty lousy. The only recognisable name in the film (recognisable to fans of low-budget trash, I mean) is B-movie star Jared Martin who is totally wasted in his role as a neurologist (although he does get to roll around naked with a lightly-oiled Naszinsky, which would be a fair enough reason for taking the gig!).

Ænigma is one for Fulci fans who, like me, have seen all of his better known films already and are now just ticking off the other titles from his filmography for the sake of completion.

One of Fulci's lesser efforts, Aenigma is a blatant copy of so many other films, it's hard to count them all. Set in a school, it involves a misunderstood loner called Kathy who is cruelly taunted by her classmates, but takes revenge by means of psychic powers. So far, so "Carrie". But here, the cruel prank puts the victim into a coma, and it's from here that she wreaks havoc, which echoes "Patrick". She somehow manages to possess another student, who goes through the school leaving a trail of destruction and death on Kathy's behalf.

Sounds great for Fulci fans, but don't hold your breath. The various revenge murders are all very unimpressive and often ridiculous, including death by being scared of a museum and death by being confronted with a boyfriend's corpse! What's wrong with these people!? The film has no highlights of gore whatsoever, which is a major shortcoming in a Fulci film. Even it's set piece murder, a "death by snails" sequence will probably leave you laughing (how exactly do snails manage to overpower someone??). This, along with the film's title, makes me think that Fulci is actually trying to emulate Argento's far superior "Phenomeona".

The film is generally pretty confusing, as Kathy's power, and her hold over the possessed girl are never properly explained. The acting is awful, the lead character (the possessed student) wanders around looking totally bored, so you won't really care about any of the characters. It's also ugly and dull to look at, even though Fulci tries to ape Argento yet again by bathing many shots in lurid coloured lighting, mostly a tiresome bright blue, but it just doesn't add up to anything coherent. The dubbing is poor as usual ans there's a really REALLY, bad ballad being crooned over the prologue when Kathy is looking forward to her big night out! Even Fulci completists could rest easy without ever watching this one. A real stinker.

At a school for wayward girls that would give any British/Australian TV presenter/entertainer from the seventies a stroke, a prank has gone way, way wrong. Cathy, the weirdo daughter of the weirdo cleaner, has been set up on a date with Fred, the gym instructor (more on him later). After being given a horrendous eighties make up job by her two 'friends', to the tune of horrendous eighties song that wouldn't be out of place on a Bowie album from the same era, she sets out with Fred, who puts the moves on her. What Cathy doesn't know is that everyone else at the school, and their boyfriends, are all listening in and shortly chase her around in their cars, causing her to be run over.

Now in a coma and because this is a Fulci film, we get to see Cathy's spirit float above a model town (with some leftover model buildings from The New Gladiators – I wonder if Fulci kept them in the same cupboard as Jared Martin, who stars in both films). She decides to possess the body of new pupil Eva, who's goal in life is to shag as many men as possible. There's about six other actresses playing pupils in this film but for the life of me I can't remember any of their names.

Eva's first port of call is Fred. Now, he's not in the film long, but he's worth a mention. Fred is the gym teacher for the school, and he loves to date the pupils, slap them on the arse, give them leg massages, tell the pupils that they're fat, and inadvertently cause them to get run over by cars. So Eva sets up a date with him but doesn't quite get there as his reflection comes to life and strangles him, as they tend to do.

Basically, Fulci at some point has watched both Carrie and Patrick and thought "Me too!" Cathy is now possessing Eva, and causing the deaths of all involved in her accident. At one point Eva throws a hissy fit which brings her to the attention of Doctor Jared Martin, who of course is also Cathy's doctor, and they hit it off.

So the rest of the film plays out like you'd expect, with those girls all meeting their demises in various surreal ways (death by snail, death by a statue coming to life in an art gallery after a picture comes to life and stabs itself, raining blood on one of the girls, a run of the mill falling out the window gag), until Eva's family show up suddenly and take her home, causing Jared to go out with yet another one of the girls. This doesn't make Cathy a happy camper.

What surprised me after watching Aenigma was how it wasn't a pile of crap at all. In fact, I quite enjoyed it! Judging by how ill Fulci looks when he makes his usual cameo, I'm surprised he managed to make something that has an actual storyline (see Manhattan Baby for the opposite of this). Sure, it's your run of the mill late era Italian horror, but the snails, art gallery bit and completely original storyline if you haven't seen Patrick make it worth a watch. It's got all the visual trademark's of our Lucio, and looks pretty good in general. The fake heads look…faker than usual, but that seems to go with the low budgets. Seriously, see the fake head in Red Monks for a further example of the decline in fake head quality.

This movie was made in 1987, but with the terrible film quality(at least on Amazon video), opening song, dated fashions & other visuals, you would have thought it was made in 1981. Maybe Europe's style was a few years out of date. A "Top Gun" poster showing Tom Cruise however disproves it was sitting on the cutting room floor for years.

This is basically Carrie from a hospital, but with the ever popular girls' reform school that's in EuroAmerica. People die in gory ways, doors magically become locked behind them, & nobody seems to piece it together. A predictable slasher film.

I am not surprised to see mostly negative reviews for Fulci's 1987 "Carrie" inspired "Aenigma". It does not stand up to his late 70's/early 80's gore epics that you all are familiar with. But wait, let's remember that Fulci is still visually inventive in 87, with lots of great camera moves and flair. The man knew how to tell a story, folks. He may have been a jerk to his colleagues, but what a great craftsman. He was trying to make a US style teenager quasi slasher popcorn movie here, a lighter less horrifying type of deal. I think it should also be said that this was well cast. The beautiful college girls each play their roles with unique personalities, something you won't find in most US films of this type. The geeky girl in the red dress is a hoot, and so is the famous snail scene. Best of all is the English new wave/pop sappy romance song that sets up the audience perfectly. It's an interesting and engaging story, even if it is clearly inspired by Carrie. And unlike so many other horror films, the ending is rewarding, logical AND suspenseful. I still haven't seen a Fulci film that I don't like, and this is no exception...check it out!

...ehr, nevermind, I guess I'm a sick puppy. And it seems that I like tormenting myself too, 'cause last night a strange urge encouraged me to re-watch AENIGMA. I first saw it 6 years ago, or so, and thought it was rather bad. And now, 6 years later, guess what? It's still bad. From the moment the opening credits come on you know it can't be good: very bad 80's pop music and a girl that's putting make-up which makes her look even more ugly. Anyway, the story isn't exactly original: Ugly girl gets to be the victim of a prank by fellow-students and ends up in a coma. But her soul roams free, occasionally possessing the new girl in school and killing all the ones involved in the accident.

Welcome to the 80's world of college-cuties: smoking in dorm-rooms with Sylvester Stallone & Tom Cruise-posters on the wall. The acting's really bad all the time and the sound editing's rather sloppy too. But the directing isn't really too bad. There are a few nice camera-moves and two fine top-shots of the school and the hospital (which do look like miniatures, by the way, but still nice). Are there any more reasons to watch this flick? Well, ehr... maybe: the death-by-snails-scene (kinda gross), the museum-sequence, a decapitation, and... a bizarre sex-scene in a dream with our leading-girl biting chunks out of the love-doctor.

But there isn't much gore actually, considering Lucio Fulci made this. The movie itself never gets really boring due to the deaths and frequently intercut freaky shots of the creepy girl in a coma, but the ending seemed like they just (literally) pulled the plug on this movie. It really hurts me a lot to flunk a Fulci-movie, 'cause I'm a fan of some of his movies. Can't bring myself to give AENIGMA less than 4 stars though, because it still feels like a Fulci-movie. If you're only an average horror-fan, you should avoid this movie 'cause this is for Fulci-fans only.

Not unlike, Gianni Martucci's 'Trhauma' (1980), maestro, Lucio Fulci appropriates an equally idiosyncratic moniker for his creepy-crawly telekinetic terror treat 'Aenigma'. Employing a similarly skewed comatose killer to supernatural somnambulist Patrick, grimly embellished with all the signature strangeness one expects from, Fulci. Unfairly disparaged by horror fans, Fulci's latter-day works routinely contain a bravura bounty of loopy set-pieces, bizarre exsanguination, and an array of voluptuous terror totty! 'Aenigma' snails along amicably with its squirrelly array of eerie EKG wrecking ESP insanity! Shot in the vivid twilight of Fulci's illustrious career, 'Aenigma' isn't just another witlessly misogynistic slasher, remaining a surrealistically sinister enigma from the revered high priest of horror extremity!

Set in the cloistered collegiate confines of St. Mary's, an asinine 'elite' of grossly entitled girls nastily perpetrate a grievous prank upon the plain, altogether vulnerable, Kate (Mijlijana Zirojevic). This unleashes the pyrotechnic, preternatural plot, as the comatose, ostensibly brain-dead, Kathy begins to wreak her psychic revenge on the foul skeezers that did her so egregiously wrong! Unleashing her telekinetic tendrils within the increasingly beleaguered St. Mary's school, Kate's vengeful spirit possesses new arrival, Eva (Laura Lamberti). As the ruinous bodies of tormented teenage girls pile up like used crack pipes on, Amber Heard's yoga mat, the morally bankrupt Lothario, Dr. Robert Anderson (Jared Martin) soon suspects that he has manifestly boinked the wrong teenager!

The oft derided 'Aenigma', while frequently eccentric, has much to recommend it to the more exploratory splatter fan. Appreciated for its macabrely mollusc-centric idiosyncrasies, it still makes for quite a boisterously bonkers Blood-spiller. Unfairly judged against maestro, Lucio's more iconic works, it occasionally falls short. That said, even a supposedly lesser Fulci will provide more entertainment than much of the blandly recycled franchise fodder of today. 'Aenigma' is compellingly strange cinema, building to an unhinged, phantasmagorically tweaked climax. Charged by a thrilling, Carlo Maria Cordio score, his whim Not unlike, Gianni Martucci's 'Trhauma' (1980), Lucio Fulci appropriates an equally Aenigmatic moniker for his creepy-crawly telekinetic terror treat 'Aenigma'. Employing a similarly skewed comatose killer to supernatural somnambulist Patrick, but luridly embellishing it with all the signature supernatural strangeness one expects from maestro, Fulci. Frequently disparaged by horror fans, Fulci's latter-day works routinely contain a bravura bounty of loopy set-pieces, bizarre exsanguination, and a bevvy of voluptuous terror totty! 'Aenigma' snails along amicably with its squirrelly array of eerie EKG wrecking ESP insanity! Shot in the vivid twilight of his illustrious career, 'Aenigma' isn't just another witlessly misogynistic slasher, being a surrealistically sinister enigma from the revered high priest of horror extremity!

Set in the cloistered collegiate confines of St. Mary's, an asinine 'elite' of grossly entitled girls nastily perpetrate a grievous prank upon the plain, altogether vulnerable, Kate (Mijlijana Zirojevic). This unleashes the pyrotechnic, preternatural plot, as the comatose, ostensibly brain-dead, Kathy begins to wreak her psychic revenge on the foul skeezers that did her so egregiously wrong! Unleashing her telekinetic tendrils within the increasingly beleaguered St. Mary's school, Kate's vengeful spirit possesses new arrival, Eva (Laura Lamberti). As the ruinous bodies of tormented teenage girls pile up like soiled syringes on, Amber Heard's yoga mat, the morally bankrupt medico, Dr. Robert Anderson (Jared Martin) soon suspects that he has manifestly boinked the wrong teenager!

The oft derided 'Aenigma', while eccentric, has much to recommend it to the more exploratory splatter fan. Appreciated for its macabrely mollusc-centric idiosyncrasies, it boasts some bizarro Blood-spillage. It is a little unfair to judge Aenigma against maestro, Fulci's iconic masterpieces, since its budgetary restrictions are quite obvious. That said, even a supposedly lesser Fulci provides more inventive slaughter than much of the blandly recycled fearless fodder of today. 'Aenigma' is compellingly strange cinema, building to an unhinged, phantasmagorically tweaked crescendo. Charged by a thrilling, Carlo Maria Cordio score, his whimsical main theme will most assuredly hypnotise even the most synth-sceptic mind! Sical main theme will most assuredly earworm its way deep into your mind!

I've seen several movies made by Fulci. And this one is the least terrifying and scary among the others I've watched. For me it was much more easier to watch "Aenigma" then, for example, "Black Cat" or "House by the Cemetery" (which are, of course, the must seen ones). Nevertheless it has everything a good horror movie should have. I really like it, especially the ending, which shows brilliant work of camera and music together. This movie is an example of Lucio Fulci remarkable capability generated from his very own vision of reality to create the unique mood and atmosphere.

I love Lucio! and although there are many of his films that I would still like to see (westerns in particular) I have seen most of his Horrors and early thrillers.

This film is the pits (sorry old chap!) its like some cheap unimaginative- for the bucks only- US commercial horror movie! (bearing in mind that some of the greatest horror films of all time have been American, of course!) I liked Cat in the Brain, Murder Rock Dancing death- both lesser movies in his cannon... but this! watch it by all means as part of the Fulci course; but I found it a profound disappointment.

The only thing in this films defence is the style of direction- that unmistakable Italian va va voom is present even in this shoddy affair... its rubbish- but its Italian rubbish! (Fulci still shows his flare... by way of an apology!)

OH MY GOD !! ***************

Kathy is a poor Carrie-like who gets humiliated by her "friends" and had a car accident. Her spirit possessed a new schoolgirl and gets his revenge of the bad guys !

The first 10 minutes are hilarious (especially the song "Head over Meels"...with that "Dream come true...")... The rest of the film is like a TV movie, quite boring and absolutely not scary... Don't miss the appearance of the ghost on a Tom Cruise poster... Anyway, it's a great film to watch with friends, beer, pizzas...

The french dubbing sounds to be made very quickly, Kathy's voice sounds like a man !!!

love it...

Sordid and chilling Fulci pic with shocks , thrills , disagreeable scenes and lots of blood and gore . At St. Mary's College, a boarding school for girls located just outside Boston , Massachusetts , an underdog , unattractive student, named Kathy (Mijlijana Zirojevic), becomes the butt of a practical set-up perpetrated by a group of students and the hunky , but sadistic gym teacher. As the young girl is submitted to a ruthless joke when is suddenly wounded in a roadside incident and resulting in a coma condition , subsequently developing strange powers and causing weird effects on the people . A bit later on , Eva (Lara Lamberti) , a newcomer student arrives to the school , takes over Kathy's old room and begins socializing with some of the girls responsible for Kathy's situation . It results out be that Eva is a pawn under the control of the comatose Kathy from her hospital bed to execute a brutal vendetta against those whom did her sickness . While Kathy's physician , Dr. Robert Anderson (Jared Martin) meets and starts dating Eva whom also targets his latest sweetheart . They made a clown out of Kathy once too often! .Possessed by revenge! .All her enemies will be eliminated... but first they will suffer!

Thunderously overwhrought pile of Grand Guignol terror and displaying a lot of slaughter , mayhem , sickening images and quirk phenomenon with the considerable telekinesis talents carried out by a comatose patient against her tormentors . Including several nude women suffering grim , terrible and gory comeuppances and leaving nothing to the imagination . The plot is well known , plain and simple : a lonely , gaunt , outcast girl being hit by a car during a cruel practical joke , but she develops secret , amazing powers to manipulate with her mind , and making her angry could prove to be deadly by enacting a bloody revenge against the elitist coeds responsible for her condition . It blends ideas from ¨Carrie¨ (1976) by Brian De Palma , along with the original Australian film ¨Patrick¨ (1978) and ¨Patrick vive ancora¨ (1980) by Mario Landi , the latter has little connection to its predecessor , being really a crazy exploitation from Italy . This ¨Aenigma¨ (1987) turning out to be an exercise in pure depravity with special mention for a female character who's eaten and suffocated by thousands of snails and adding some others really grisly scenes of carnage . A sickening , incompetent and scary flick , including some frames with absolute insult to good taste and packing extremely elevated sleaziness . That's why it's rated NC-17 or R due to extreme graphic violence , disgusting gore , female nudity, adding strong sexual scenes , language and anything else . Mediocre main and support cast with full of gorgeous young girls . Being only the familiar face : the American Jared Harris who died in 2017 at 75 and also performed for Fulci , ¨Rome 2033 The Fighter Centurions¨ . And Lucio Fulci cameo as police detective at the crime scene of Fred Vernon's death and brief apperance by Sabrina Siani who played various heroines in Italian Sword and Witchery movies.

This horror-thriller was middlingly directed by Lucio FulciI who made some of the nastiest , sleaziest and most brutal gore yarns ever produced in Italy . This ¨Aenigma¨ was a poor mess from gore-meister Fulci . As Lucio Fulci was one of the most controversial filmmakers in terror genre , though frequently derided as sheer sensationalism and commerciality. Here Lucio Fulci directs in his usual style filled with flaws , failures , shortcoming and gaps , but professionally made because being a nice artisan . Critics are divided over both the moral and talents of Fulci (1927-1996) , who sometimes directed under the alias Louis Fuller. For some reviewers many of his flicks are extremely bloody and savage , yet their gory surface often concealing social, religious , or provoking commentaries or other thoughful , intelligent issues . Nevertheless , most of them considering his works have undeniably provided a considerable influence on the terror genre , creating decent efforts on low-medium budget flicks . Standing out his ¨Don't Torture a Duckling¨ deemed to be one of his best pictures . And in the adventure genre with two financially successful Jack London 'White Fang' adventure movies in 1973 and 1974 which were ¨Zanna Bianca¨, and ¨Il ritorno di Zanna Bianca¨. Also during the mid and late 1970s , Fulci directed 'Spaghetti Westerns' : ¨Massacre Time¨(1966) , ¨Four of Apocalypse¨ (1975) and ¨Sella d'argento¨ or ¨Silver Saddle¨(1978) , and another important 'giallo' : ¨The Psychic¨ (1977), as well as a few sex-comedies which include the political spoof : ¨The Eroticist¨(1972) , and the vampire comedy ¨Young Dracula¨ (1975) , and the violent Mafia crime-drama ¨Luca the smuggler¨ (1979) . In 1979, Fulci's film making career successfully another high point with him , breaking into the international market with ¨Zombi 2¨ (1979), an in-name-only sequel to George A. Romero's Zombi : Night of the Lving Dead (1978), which had been released in Italy as 'Zombi' ; furthermore , ¨City of the Living Dead¨(1980) , ¨From Beyond¨, ¨The House by the Cemetery¨(1981) , ¨The Black cat¨(1981) . And his big hit ¨New York Ripper¨ , at the time rated as a video nasty , due to it and why the excessive extra violence was heavily cut or prohibited in a large number of countries . With this film established Fulci as a gore director par excellence , following other horror movies until his fall in which he started working in Television in some very short budgeted telefilms.

If you didn't like that film, then you won't/don't like his other work. (Or maybe you will)I'm a reasonably big fan of his work, although I still need to see plenty more of his films. What you have to understand is that the stuff he did doesn't really have a big budget behind it, and in a way I think it's better, because the death scenes look much more real (which is strange, you'd think with the amount of money that they have these days backing horror films, that the effects would be much more realistic, but I find that they're not)If your a fan of cheesy horror, that at the same time has gore galore plus plenty more (heh, nice word play)then Lucio Fulci's stuff is definitely worth checking out. If you're not, then you can always go back to the endless agony that is the "I know what you did last summer" films....

In coma in the local hospital, Kathy is dying. Her spirit, seeking vengeance, reacts and takes possession of the body of a beautiful young student, Eva, new at the college. Then, begins a bloody crusade of revenge on all students that have made fun of her in the past. With the (in)famous Snail attack, that reminds a lot of "the beyond". I'd give this one 6 out of 10.

I really enjoyed Lucio Fulci's film Aenigma it is set inside a College,just outside Boston, Massachusettes which is a boarding school for girls. A lonely student, called Kathy (Mijlijana Zirojevic), has a cruel practical joke played on her, by a gang of students. Kathy is tricked into going on a date with Mr. Vernon her gym teacher, Fred Vernon (Riccardo Acerbi). when she tries to make a move on him in his car which is in the woods as a joke, the students appear in their cars to taunt her. while she runs away from the other students, Kathy runs onto a busy street where she gets hit by a car and is admitted to the hospital in a coma. A bit later on a new girl called Eva Gordon (Laura Naszinski) arrives at the school where she is shown around by the headmistress Miss Jones, and she is given Kathy's old room. Eva ends up getting processed by the spirit of the Kathy who is in a coma whom begins using supernatural powers of to get revenge against all of the students who were involved in the prank that put her in a coma. The next night, Virginia Williams (Kathi Wise), one of the students involved in the prank against Kathy, is attacked in her bed and suffocated to death by tons of snails that appear and then disappear. This is quite a gory film. which most viewers will enjoy. Reccommeded!!

Watching this movie is a lot like self-dismemberment. You want to do it before, but after you wish you hadn't. Lucio Fulci, director of many pasta-land splatter films, releases this not-so-famous film in 1987. The basic story is a dorky girl gets picked on by all the rich stuck up girls of a private school. They all play a cruel trick on her when a handsome boy of the school pretends to like her, only to laugh and laugh at her when she tries to "make out" with him. She runs away only to afterward get hit by a car. While in her coma, she some-how manages to possess a new girl in the school, who in turn commits murder against the "bad" students that hurt the girl. This movie has the infamous "rape by snail" scene which isn't as gruesome as you might expect from Fulci after the spiders and dogs in 'The Beyond." I watched the UNCUT Japanese print, but from what I could tell nothing was cut out of the old 86 minute version violence-wise except for the "lip biting" scene.

Overall, a 4/10 because of a rape-by-snail scene. Come on Lucio, more gore PLEASE!

I would like to comment on the previous commentator. Anyone who would knock an entire casts acting abilities after watching a very badly dubbed European film does not know much about the film business. Anyone who knows anything about film knows that one bad performance, OK, probably the actor, two, maybe, but three or more, most likely has to do with the Director and possibly the Editor. I am not denying that the film has little to be desired, but whoever has the audacity to knock an entire cast and crew should not only stay out of the reviewing business, but more than likely the film business as well. Anyone in the film business or wanting to stay in the business is very aware that words are very powerful. I suggest before formulating an opinion on an entire casts acting abilities you compare their other work.

AENIGMA opens with Kathy (Mijilijana Zirojevic) getting ready to go out on a big date, while the wretched theme song, "Head Over Heels" warbles along.

Oh no!

It's a set up! Instead of a date, Kathy's wicked -aren't they always?- school mates humiliate her, ending in tragedy for Kathy. Now, comatose Kathy's disembodied consciousness floats away in order to take her terrible vengeance.

Enter Eva Gordon (Lara Lamberti), a new student at St. Mary's College.

Dear lord!

Jazzercise breaks out!

For her part, Eva begins dating a faculty member right away. A maid at the college has a mystical link to Kathy, and bizarre deaths ensue. Meanwhile, Eva starts acting strangely, causes mayhem, and begins dating her doctor. This, while Kathy cackles with eeevil glee! Is Eva being slowly possessed by Kathy? How will this affect her love life?

Director Lucio Fulci was an interesting guy with a varied film canon. The same man who brought us LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN, DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING, and ZOMBIE, managed to also give us this crackpot movie. What can possibly be said about a film containing "death-by-snails"? Definitely a different, novel take on what could have been just another CARRIE clone. While certainly not a classic, at least this movie is fun to watch, and still superior to much of Fulci's later output.

WARNING: "Head Over Heels" plays again at the end!...