I don't want to die! Teenagers like to make jokes, sometimes cruel and angry. So the pupils of St. Mary’s College decided to play the trusting and ugly Katie, the daughter of a school cleaner, by no means known as being in this “boarding of noble girls” from wealthy families. The prank was successful, but Katie, terrified of running away from her classmates chasing and laughing over her, gets hit by a car, and then from severe injuries plunges into a coma in the hospital. There's no hope, it's like a vegetable. And only Katie’s soul rushes in a still body with a desperate cry: “I don’t want to die!” I shouldn't die! The thirst for revenge was stronger than death. This revenge will be terrible. At the same time, a new student, Eva Gordon, arrives at the college, who was late for the beginning of the school year due to illness (slight nervous exhaustion). From this moment begins a series of terrible and sudden deaths of all who were involved in the unfortunate prank. And in the hospital, during each death, a strange and violent brain activity is observed in a practically dead girl.
The very topic of bullying classmates over a defenseless “ugly duckling” and the subsequent ruthless revenge of the victim against their abusers is far from new in cinema in general and in the horror genre in particular. "Carrie" is probably the most famous movie about it. We know enough films about the revenge of not only the living, but also the dead, ghosts who punish their abusers using otherworldly forces and various magical abilities, along with their own superpowers. Lucio Fulci does not invent anything new, but plays his game with the already known “cookies-steps”, folding their pictures and figures out of them, without fear of repetitions and almost quotes from the films of the same Dario Argento, but telling a similar story with his own language, using his own proprietary techniques and methods, creating his own, recognizable atmosphere of fear and mystery.
As in the Australian horror movie “Patrick”, where the hero lies in a coma, but can manipulate people with the power of his thoughts and emotions, control equipment and move objects, Katie also takes revenge on those who laughed at her evil, who are guilty of the fact that she is actually a motionless doll. But not by the power of thought, but by the power of spirit, the power of a desperate and fierce soul, which inhabits the fragile blond beauty Eva, turning her into a ruthless killer. Katie’s vengeful spirit manipulates not only Eve’s mind, but the minds of other girls, instilling in them terrible hallucinations, both visual and auditory. And then Fulci with pleasure frightens the viewer with creepy scenes with snails devouring the girl, strapping her whole body, crawling into her mouth and ears. In a night museum, statues come to life, attacking another poor victim to strangle her, stone snakes come to life streaming across the floor and hissing viciously. Another girl, seeing the ghost of Katie, is thrown out of the window, and her friend is cut off by a fallen frame. For a better effect, there is a scene of nipple biting and other horrors in which the maestro knew a lot and was able to show on the screen.
Enigma is not a particularly successful Fulci film, but it is also not a failure. The story itself is fascinating, and the following one after another inventive deaths and saturation with action do not let the viewer get bored. The mystical atmosphere of the old college building with colored stained glass windows, columns, stone walls and long corridors sets the right mood, simultaneously delighting the beauty of the picture. Italian horror 70-80-ies are famous for magnificent musical design. Composer Carlo Maria Cordio wrote beautiful music, alarmingly triumphant, amplifying and emphasizing the tension in the frame. Beautiful nature (the film was shot in Serbia) and beautiful girls also add pluses to the piggy bank of the film. The role of Eva was played by the beautiful blonde Lara Nijinski, who horror lovers can remember from the film Lamberto Bava “Blade in the Night”, where she played the girlfriend of the main character, composer. Her beautiful blue eyes instantly become steely and dead-cold when her mind is retaken by the vengeful Katie, and their gaze is ruthless and empty. It is empty even when she, with the greed of a nymphomaniac, lashes out with kisses at the astonished Dr. Anderson, played by Jared Martin.
As a screenwriter, as has often happened, Fulci acted himself, co-authored with Giorgio Mriuzo, with whom scripts were also written for the films “The Seventh Gate of Hell” and “The House on the Edge of the Cemetery”. In "Enigma" there are no crazy bloody scenes, that meat grinder, intestines, brains and dismemberment characteristic of the director's latest films. Here, the main whipping of fear is based on mysticism, on nightmare dreams with a large dose of eroticism, on darkness, terrible visions, delusions. And all this is densely poured throughout the timekeeping of the picture, guaranteeing the pleasure of watching all fans of Lucio Fulci’s talent. The unreality of what is happening only emphasizes the expressive appearance of Katie and her mother Maria. They're really similar. There is something internal-demonic in their appearance, in disheveled hair, in burning eyes, in the tense bend of the nerve lips, in high cheekbones. Almost without makeup, the actresses embody on the screen pain, anger, hatred and despair with one look, one look. There is in their eyes really something otherworldly, creepy, incomprehensible and hopeless.
Another of Fulci’s talents is the ability to pour concentrated horror in the frame without expensive special effects and monsters, which in his works is always deep, based on fear of the secret, incomprehensible, unknown, mysterious. Primitive human fear of the otherworldly, incomprehensible and terrible, bordering on madness, pressing on the psyche, on the perception of the viewer. Italian horror is famous for such fear, such an ability to keep the tension in the viewer, to control it. And Lucio Fulci was a recognized master of such Italian horror, one of the best horror makers of his time. And his fans are still growing.
5 out of 10