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A Masterpiece!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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.

Standard Fulci here, this one being a study in revenge motivation. A young girl was tormented and ultimately nearly killed by a practical joke that went awry. A new patient arrives at a school for disturbed girls, shortly after which all manner of weirdness ensues. Not the most graphic of Fulci's movies, this is more psychological (if you can believe such a thing from the master of splatter) though there is a very strange sequence with snails. It looks horrid but whole time you are just thinking "Get up and brush them off you fool" Overall, satisfyingly bizarre though it gets a little plodding towards the end. Far from Fulci's best.

OK I agree with most of the comments here. The movie is pretty bad....thus far the worst of Lucio's films (that I've seen). Some of the sets were interesting, the music was good too. Was it me or did the music that was played over the miniature city sets sound like the music from Aliens? Another question, the Tom Cruise Poster and the Yoda Poster, did they need special permission to add those in the film? OK to kill you all, some lyrics from the intro song (head over heels): Put on your makeup your eyes are blue enough tonight is special for you you're gonna see that dream come true put on your red dressyou gotta look your best tonight is waiting for you he's gonna make that dream come true you've got that feeling deep inside loving the first time in your life falling head over heels and you just can't stop falling into the arms of a lover falling over head over heels baby from the top and you hope it will go on forever!

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.