By Melissa Antoinette Garza
Poor Kathy (Miliana Zirojevic)! Kathy is a student at St. Mary’s College in Boston MA (local pride) who only gets in because she is the maid’s daughter (Dusica Zegarac) I think Kathy is a gorgeous gal, but the opening scene disagrees with me.
AENIGMA begins with a sweet song playing as Kathy gets ready for a date with physical education teacher Fred Vernon (Riccardo Acerbi). Two students help her beautify. She has colorful makeup that some may think is too much, but I love it. She dons a red number that is equal parts shoulder pads and polyester, but it was the 80s. Regardless, the girl is a knockout!
Fred picks her up, but rather than go dancing they park. She still refers to him as sir, until he tells her to call him by his first name. He makes a move and she falls into it. She’s had a crush on this teach for awhile. Sadly, Vernon is more than just a creeper douche! He set this whole thing up as a way to terrorize her.
He has all the other students hiding with their lights off and listening in from their speakers. They hear Kathy’s inexperienced excitement and arousal coming thru loud and clear. Unsurprisingly, they’re not cool about it! These assholes flash their high-beams and embarrass the living shit out of her.
Kathy panics as Fred bursts out laughing. She runs away and these sorority girl scumbags and frat boy lunatics begin chasing her down the dark street. She gets cornered and struck by a vehicle thus leaving her in a coma.
At the hospital, when she begins redlining, Dr. Robert Anderson (Jared Martin) is brought in to use a defibrillator. She doesn’t respond initially and the viewers hear her inner-monologue as she begs for her life and says she does not want to die.
Kathy shows back up at school, but in a different body that she is operating telepathically. She’s now a blonde beaut with gorgeous green eyes named Eva Gordon (Lara Lamberti). She has a backstory regarding a nervous breakdown that occurred directly before her attendance at St. Mary’s. She insists she is over it and ready to start anew.
Eva is placed in a room with Jenny (Ulli Reinthaler) and tells her that she wants a successful year of making out with as many boys as possible. Vernon wastes no time asking her out on a date. How does this guy still have a job? I live in Massachusetts and I don’t think this behavior is allowed. He massages her hamstring in the middle of class. Is that what’s going on in Boston colleges?! If so, I need to stop writing this review and go grab a college app. I mean – that is sexual harassment and she does NOT have to take it!
Later, in a very cool paranormal death scene Vernon receives his comeuppance for the shit he pulled with Kathy and in general with women everywhere. The maid stares on with angry red eyes as his own reflection comes out of a mirror to murder him. He was such a tool – and worse than that, a pretty boy tool.
In the dorm, the women who fucked with Kathy all talk shit about her to Eva. All but Jenny find the whole situation hilarious. They trash her mother and show zero remorse. They laugh at the torment they caused and when Jenny shows sympathy, she’s ridiculed. Worse, when they find out Fred is dead, they blame Kathy and are angry she is still alive. I’ve been to Boston countless times. These attitudes don’t shock me.
The mental mind-fuckery continues as Virginia Williams (Kathi Wise) sees snails all over her bed. When she runs to get help from the head mistress, they vanish only to return when the teach leaves. The snail scene is my favorite. There’s something truly wicked about the whole thing as they completely engulf her. The visuals are just phenomenal. How can someone watch that and say there is no artistry to horror? It’s dark and unnerving and crazy and even a bit sexy in a strange way.
Eva then goes into a strange episode of attacking Jenny and then getting sexy on bed with an invisible sex demon of some sort. Dr. Anderson makes a house call to check on her. He gives her something that wakes her up. She immediately brings the doc in for a make-out session and he kisses back. I can’t blame him. She’s just so sensual in her seduction and breathtaking in her beauty. She owns her sexuality. The next day, she goes and finds Anderson. She begins a seduction of the shy doc. He tries to stay professional, but she gets his first name out of him her easily. Within moments, they’re making out in his hot red convertible. Go Eva!
Later, she notices he’s checking out one Grace (Jennifer Naud) one of the skanks who fucked with Kathy. She calls him on looking at her and he’s suave enough to say that she’s far more attractive – and she is – in every CONCIEVABLE way! That doc needs to get with it. There’s nothing wrong with trying to encourage a little triple play, but make sure the choice gal isn’t a complete bitch who tried to kill your lover.
When Eva begins messing with Grace, we witness some more great imagery. The entire scene from jump is filmed magnificently, the religious tone and the haunting white backgrounds that later expose corpses make for a creepy tone that sticks. It’s both odd and in your face. I love it.
Making that even greater is that my favorite moment in the movie comes directly after. Eva returns home without Grace and is brought in under suspicion by the head mistresses. Eva breaks down crying and feigns innocence. She has these women eating out of her palms and feeling badly for her in seconds – and it’s completely believable. I really like Eva before this scene, I am ready to fall to my knees for her after it. It’s just marvelous. It’s so manipulative! There’s nothing greater than when the viewer is in on a lie with the villain. I always feel as though it bonds us in a devious alliance and I just adore it. It’s fabulous how the elders just fall all over themselves telling her not to feel guilty. That to me is as erotic as a masterful sex scene.
Speaking of sexy, when Anderson is put in charge of Eva’s psychiatric care they have a hot little celebration where a shy Jenny awkwardly watches on. The doc tries to pull away, but yummy Eva keeps it up nicely and she is just too ravishing to refuse.
He later has a delicious little fantasy where they’re having passionate sex, but then things get real wild and she gets a tad vicious. He knows something isn’t right because he catches her in several inconsistencies, but before he has a chance to delve into them she’s kicked out of school. Eva’s mother picks her up and brings her away.
While Eva is away, Anderson starts hooking up with Jenny. The two have a sweet romance, but sweet is so boring! I want him with sultry Eva. I want him with that possessed and crazy gal. She writes him sweet love letters – some may say that they have stalker tendencies within them. She does say that he belongs to her and that would be kind of creepy and criminal IF Eva wasn’t so damn delicious.
When Eva finds out that Jenny and the doc are about to sweat up the sheets, she doesn’t take it well. I don’t blame her. Kathy/Eva continuously gets screwed.
Much like with CARRIE (1976), I am 100% on board with the villain in this film. Most of the people both Eva and Carrie kill are bastards who tortured them. They start off as innocuous, soft nice kids who are just driven to bloodshed. I know I’m supposed to root for Jenny. I don’t. Screw her! There’s like a billion other guys and you have to go after the one doc your roomie was trying to nail in front of you. I hate girls like Jenny! Nice, goodie-goodies who bat their innocent little eyes to get what they want – nope, I don’t like her at all. I’m 100% #TeamEva.
I love flick. It’s currently both on AMAZON PRIME and YOUTUBE so watch it for free if you don’t own it.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7.5/10
