What do you get when you combine Brian DePalma’s Carrie, the legendary Australian horror film Patrick, and Dario Argento’s Suspiria?
A) A typical Italian Horror film
B) A weird, confused and sometimes incoherent mess
C) Lucio Fulci‘s Aenigma
or,
D) All of the above.
Of course, we all know the answer is “D.”
Nor is Fulci shy about his thefts: we have a sequence where the fellow students of a young girl named Kathy prepare her for a big date only to humiliate her. She is left in a coma and then uses telepathic power — like Patrick in Richard Franklin’s film — to punish those responsible (back to Carrie). Like Patrick, she also falls in love with her caregiver, in this case the Neurologist on the job, Dr. Anderson. And, of course, it is all set in a somewhat strange girls’ school with odd things going on.
But, as clear and simple as this sounds, Fulci seems to be throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks and there are a lot of things hinted at which suggest other darker things going on in the background which he never got around to. I’ll admit I’m thinking of the story about the Headmistress and another teacher locking themselves in her room and all the strange sounds which come out of it. One half expects it to be some sort of witches’ coven at work, particularly when we hear a loud ghostly moan immediately afterwards.
But it’s all immediately forgotten, and the other strange hints about the Headmistress get forgotten along the way. Is Fulci suggesting that she’s trying to attract Dr. Anderson — and does it really matter if she is?
Now I continue to review movies about telepaths on this site although they frequently do slip from mental powers to supernatural ones or even witchcraft. It really isn’t clear where this one falls: Kathy and her mute and possibly mentally handicapped mother (who works at the Girl’s College as a Mop Lady) came from New Orleans. The other girls think her mother’s a witch, and we do see the mother with glowing eyes.
But is this because Kathy is exerting her telepathic powers on her? We never see the mother do anything remotely resembling witchcraft, even if she does seem to be involved in one early murder, before Kathy has completely dominated another student.
Mind you, it’s even harder to make sense of her mother’s early involvement when you consider what happens at the end.
But in one of Lucio Fulci’s films I don’t suppose it really matters, not as long as we get some weird and gruesome murders, some strange and eerie settings and a few disturbing scenes. Perhaps the best moment comes when we see a marble statue choke a girl to death, although the death by snails might possibly be even better. It’s close.
And that should give you a clear idea of what this film is about.
Yes, this is an elegant and frequently scary film, with a lot of atmosphere and a few interesting ideas (even if most of them have been borrowed from other films). However, you have to remember that this is a post-Argento Italian horror film, where style matters more than such trivial things as making sense (although Argento’s girl with psychic powers film, Phenomena makes a lot more sense than Aenigma does, at least if you see the longer Euro cut).
But, hey, there’s plenty of gore, a bit of nudity, lots of style, a few creepy visions (stylish ones, with gore and nudity), and big, colorful splashes of blood.
Which is what you watch these films for.
And you never know, maybe there is a Euro cut (or even a handful of deleted scenes) with the headmistress running some sort of Satanic cult.
It definitely wouldn’t surprise me.
rivets on the poster 
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