Aenigma (1987)

There's one stunning shot in Aenigma. The spirit/astralbody of the braindead girl is leaving her body, moves up through all the floors, out on the roofs, floats over a very cool miniature landscape and lands at the St Marys Boaring School. This is a vintage Fulci in the works, very atmospheric, orginal and with stunning visuals. It's a pity that the rest of the movie don't have that magic we love much. 

Where the movie lacks in story and characters, it has a distinct style and professional look. The story is a mix between Patrick and Carrie, with a few sprinkles of Suspiria. That's okey for me, the biggest part of my movie collection is movies that's trying to imitate other movies - sometimes it's better, sometimes not. This could have worked if the characters wasn't so god damn flat. It's just talking faces, a few tits and uninspired dialogue. I like Jared Martin a lot, but he hasn't much to do here except delivering silly lines and kissing overaged teenaged girls.

Here and there we have some great shots and some that could have been a lot better (for example where the girl is getting attacked by the art) and some that dosen't work at all, among them the infamous snail-scene. The problem with that one is that snails is unimpressive to watch at in movie. They just slime around, doing nothing - and no disgusting sound effects in the world can save that. The gore is quite minimal to, which is sad - because this could have been a so much funnier movie with some nasty gore-effects.

I'm negative now, but I would recommend it for the cinematography and that Fulci injects some inspiration where he feels for it. He's doing a cameo to, as usual, and looks very sick and weak. Far away from the streetwise editor in Zombi 2 or the machine gun-maniac in Contraband. After a while I was sitting counting the famous people showing up on posters in the schoolgirls rooms. Stallone (with a snail on!) and Cruise is to, and I can swear I saw Christopher Lambert to. But I could be wrong. Even if I like him, and would never never never have a poster of him on the wall. 

Maybe not the best Fulci has done, but still better than a lot of the other shit out there. So give it a try when you're in the mood for some slow-moving italian horror from the tacky eighties.