Anguish (1988)

I am completely biased here, but this is one of those movies I have seen as a kid and made an impression on me. I saw it again just now and, even if it didn't have such an impact on me now, I remembered every scene. It was truly well done and memorable. Besides, everything with Zelda Rubinstein must be fun, right? :)At this point I tell you that this is a fun horror movie and you should see it and stop reading any comments, including the rest of mine. It will spoil it for you.The movie plot is at first about a serial killer mother and son duo, where the mother is hypnotically controlling her son in order to commit murder and then collect their victims eyes. However, we now see that this is only a movie that two teenage girls are watching in a theater. One of them is obviously distressed and wants to leave, but her older sister insists they watch it. Then the movie they are watching starts to sip into their reality, making the younger sister more and more terrified.Bottom line: this is one of those movies engineered to make you identify with their characters to a very high degree, thus making the plight of said characters affect you more deeply. If you are a horror fan, it would be sinful not to watch it.

This movie plays with the audience expectations in a level and maybe it have some characteristics of the terror genre that can be seen in a lot of movies but have some features of its own that makes the movie an original one. It's clear that this movie was not made with a big budget but the cast and crew give life to an imaginative screenplay .Rubinstein and Lerner are really great here. What surprised me of this movie are the original ideas . I will not spoil you the movie at all but after watching so many movies this one still surprise me.The Spanish director Bigas Luna directed this somehow atypical movie in his career , that usually treats themes far from the terror genre or the thriller.It's a good achievement .

I first saw this film in a theater. It's the only way to get the full effect which caused me to rate it highly. In the theater you are drawn into the action. The film begins as the story of an klutzy optometric orderly who gets fired from his job because of a patient complaint. When mother finds out she goes into a frenzy exercising her hypnotic control over her son to exact horrible vengeance on all involved. Sonny then stalks his victims killing them and cutting out their eyes. As this spree progresses we suddenly are introduced to two young women and find that we are actually watching them watch a movie titled The Mommy in a theater. Another movie goer becomes hypnotized from watching the movie and goes on his own killing spree in the theater. Eventually the action in the first movie moves inside another movie theater and you find your self in a theater watching a killer's mayhem in another theater as those in that theater watch another killer's action a third theater. Naturally the killers sneak up on their victims from behind causing you to look over your shoulder every once in a while. You'll lose a lot watching this at home but it's still worthwhile seeing for it's unique style.

I first saw ANGUISH years ago and really enjoyed this film. I have yet to buy it only because I can find either only tattered VHS copies or over-priced DVD versions...Anyway the film starts off with a telepathically controlled "mama's-boy" who kills people and collects their eye's as souvenirs for his freaky mother. This goes on for a while, and then you find out that THIS part is just a film, and cuts to the audience. One of the members in the audience is "hypnotized" by the film and begins picking off the other audience members.ANGUISH is a really original and stylish film. Good story, decent acting and some cool gore make this an all-around winner...now if I could just find a cheaper copy....Recommended 8.5 out of 10