BADass SINema Unearthed - Blu-ray 4K UHD Review

Movie Review

This is a film in which a rollercoaster becomes an interrogation scene.  Effectively shot and all sorts of dangerous, Enigma Rosso has arrived.  Ah, the student body. A little less noise, girls. Keep it down. Keep. It. Down.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A teenage girl, wrapped in clear plastic from head to toe, is tossed into a wild river. It is the discovery of her nude body that sends shockwaves through a community full of bizarre characters. And it is the duty of one man, Inspector Di Salvo (Fabio Testi), to track down her killer. Pretty standard, Twin Peaks fans, I know, but there is something about this Italian giallo that makes it more than just your usual fair. This is one hell of a freaky zoom-centered murder mystery.

Enigma Rosso is a lot of things to a lot of people. It can be confusing. It’s definitely sexy with its smattering of bodacious babes both in and out of the girls school. But, honestly, there is a sense of humor in much of its wicked ways that carries a lot of weight in finding what it has to offer the gaillo beyond agreeable. The funky score by Riz Ortolani, while largely inappropriate for the mood in any other murder mystery, is undeniably the right choice for this flick.

You cannot forget Enigma Rosso or shake its greasy grooves as Testi and his sidekick, actor Bruno Alessandro, give unconventional investigating practices a whole new meaning. Directed by Alberto Negrin and written by Massimo Dallamano, Enigma Rosso is the concluding entry into Dallamano’s trifecta of terror, which began with What Have They Done To Your Daughters and What Have They Done To Solange. For my tastes, it is indeed a fitting capstone.

What some won’t tell you is that the film, about the grilling and drilling of a gang of schoolgirls called “The Inseparables” as Di Salvo finds himself in a progressive school for girls with more than its fair share of secrets and sin, is that Enigma Rosso, with a motorcycle at its center, is also damn effective. It’s creepy and titillating and, as it never lets on to the double-crossing ways of young girls, manages its fair share of shocks and snares with which to hang its audience by.

You see, the girl – Angelo is her name – was up to something. She kept a diary, too. And her girlfriends, full of secrets about cat drawings and large sums of money, aren’t talking…yet. But they will be. There’s a lot of sneaking about and sleeping around in the school and our inspector isn’t about to let anything go. No one wants a scandal he is told. There’s not a lot of time on the clock either. The pressure is mounting, but these two detectives aren’t going anywhere soon.

Enigma Rosso is now on blu-ray thanks to Scorpion Releasing’s brand new scan of the original camera negatives. There have also been an intense round of color corrections made to the print here in the United States. The results are damn impressive.

Film Details

MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 85 mins
Director: Alberto Negrin
Writer: Marcello Coscia, Massimo Dallamano
Cast: Fabio Testi, Christine Kaufmann, Ivan Desny
Genre: Horror
Tagline: Sweet sixteen ... they'll lose more than just their lives.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Someone with a cock this big raped Angela Russo and threw her in the river!"
Theatrical Distributor:
Official Site:
Release Date:
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: April 10, 2018
Synopsis: When the brutally violated body of a young woman is found wrapped in plastic, Inspector Gianni Di Salvo (Fabio Testi – Contraband, The Four of the Apocalypse) is drawn to dark deeds at an exclusive girls’ school where the beautiful members of a group called the Inseparables are being targeted with sinister letters and murder attempts.

Blu-ray Review

Home Video Distributor: Scorpion Releasing
Available on Blu-ray - April 10, 2018
Screen Formats: 2.35:1
Subtitles: English
Audio: Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0; English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

Scorpion Releasing presents Enigma Rosso on 1080p transferred from original vault materials. The results are damn good. You almost forget about its ultra sleaziness thanks to the color corrections done to the print. Almost. Presented in a 2:35:1 aspect ratio and armed with a decent English DTS-HD Master Audio trackwhich can be viewed with Italian or English subtitles/dubs, the film – having been shot on location – is pretty much as good as it gets. Colors are crisp. Shadows are decent, too. There’s some softness to the image, but the black levels are stronger. Details are also much improved. This might not be the greatest looking blu-rays ever released, but it’s still a worthy addition to your giallo collection.

Commentary:

The audio commentary by film historian Nathaniel Thompson is quite good, adding new life to totally appreciating this title.

Special Features:

This uncut 85-minute release features an International English dubbed track and an Italian audio track with optional English subtitles. There are no other special features.