Dir: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Jared Martin, Lara Naszinski, Ulli Reinthaler,
Sophie d'Aulan, Milijana Zirojevic
Unrated, Approx: 85 minutes
Image Entertainment DVD
Too Often!"
Descends Into Drab and Uninspired Territory...
to create interesting films in his later career. This 1987 effort is a rather unsuccessful blend of Carrie and
Phenomena with sprinkles of Suspiria tossed in for good measure. It isn't exactly unwatchable but remains a far
cry from his best efforts. Rather than his trademark gore and usually interesting style, the viewer is stuck with a
detrimentally boring allotment of characters spun into snail's paced narrative regarding telekinesis and revenge at a
Boston girl's school.
at her fellow students by exacting revenge with her mind. It seems that Kathy has telekinetic powers and when she
uses them to 'possess' a new student at St. Mary's School, she makes the innocent girl do her bidding. As those that
have 'wronged' Kathy begin to mysteriously die, her doctor begins to suspect that things are not quite right with the
comatose girl and attempts to figure out a way to put a stop to her reign of terror while saving the girl whom she has
taken possession of.
offers no surprises and manages to be almost instantly forgettable. It may not be particularly fair to compare a drab
film like this to a masterpiece of Fulci's like The Beyond, but it's hard to believe this is the work of the same guy.
Especially chintzy where it could've used exploitation, laughable when it should've been spooky, there's very little to it
although it does feature a heavy-handed mission statement exploring female maturation, but there's very little to
enjoy about it.
The subject matter certainly lends itself to a good old Fulci splatter show and
yet, the murders are especially bloodless. This is one film which could've stood
buckets more of the red stuff and instead we get none. As it stands the best
part is when someone is suffocated by thousands of slugs (admittedly pretty
gross), and even that is rather tame. Far be it from me to make suggestions to
Fulci regarding how to direct a film, but he even holds back when it comes to
nudity. Whereas Fulci's The New York Ripper greatly benefited from loads of
sleazy gore and sexual situations, several potentially exploitative sex scenes are
executed in Aenigma in the blandest of fashions. There are even attempts to
seemingly duplicate the bizarre lighting schemes of something like Suspiria (in
the film's biggest moment of missed opportunity, a character is stalked through
an empty museum), but even they are largely uninteresting. Perhaps Fulci
regarded this story in a different light than what he was able to convey in the
finished product, but whatever that light was remains anybody's guess.
"centerpiece", death by slug.
A fairly gross sequence that
never manages to live up to
its full potential-just like the
film in its entirety.
crawls to its conclusion. It may be watchable, but only just. This half hearted effort won't make you forget the genre
efforts Fulci gave us in the 70's and early 80's, those unfamiliar with the director's work aren't advised to take this
picture as a starting point, it may be enough to scare you off Fulci forever.
* * out of 5
Reviewed by Matt Serafini 3/18/02
 |
 |
