Anguish (1988)

The Worst Film Ever

Such a frustrating disappointment

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

"Anguish" opens with the story of John (Michael Lerner), a middle aged man dominated by his demented mother (the unique Zelda Rubinstein). She hypnotizes him into going on a murder spree, so that he may collect his victims' eyes.The catch here is that these opening 22 minutes are actually a movie within the movie. While Lerner ends up offing the people watching a showing of the original "The Lost World", the people watching *his* movie begin to be terrorized by another mother dominated madman (Angel Jove) wielding a gun.This comes recommended to horror fans, who are sure to appreciate the clever way that director Bigas Luna ("Jamon Jamon", "The Chambermaid on the Titanic") so completely blurs the line between fantasy and reality. And he maintains this tone all the way until his resolution. Up until then, he keeps our attention with an efficient pace, enough splatter to please the gore loving crowd, and some very good suspense. Luna manages to create a reasonable American feel (with much better English dubbing than one usually finds in this sort of thing) while shooting on the cheap in Barcelona. He also gets fine performances from a cast with its fair share of non-actors.The principal performers are very well cast. Lerner is a perfect combination of average schlub and sadistic psycho, and Rubinstein is incredible as the woman driving him to murder. Talia Paul and Clara Pastor are appealing as two girls watching the Lerner tale unfold on screen, and Paul really gives it her all in portraying anxiety and fear. Jove is suitably creepy.As the action in both old and new movie begins to mirror each other, Lunas' movie builds to a highly engrossing fever pitch.The closing credits are also quite appropriate to the occasion.Eight out of 10.

This creepy motion picture ingeniously realized exploring the hypnotic effects of cinema talks about a timid eye clinic intern (Michael Lerner, Omen 4) under the sway of his psychic and authoritarian mother (Zelda Rubinstein, Poltergeister). Hypnotized by swirling spirals and screechy bursts of gleaming wails, the ominous son packs up his surgical tool set and goes out a rampage . Our hapless soon-to-be victims arrive for a view a horror flick only to watch the gore unfold in the audience as well as on screen in which are showing the silent film titled ¨The lost world¨ and ¨ The mummy¨ . As a group of viewers are killed in the form of a screening of a horror movie that brings naturalism to life. As the terror picture shown to the audience gets more and more violent. The spectators (Talia Paul, Clara Pastor) see Lerner carving eyes on screen while a psycho-killer (Angel Jove) obsessed with the movie unleashes his own criminal spree on the unsuspecting spectators and he attacks anyone who crosses her way and soon the place is filled with people killed. The survivors trapped in the theater must fend off attacks of the murderers. At the ending the remaining public start the desperate battle for their lives and eventually, the theatre turns a walled-in trap. Soon it becomes clear that the parallel arguments gather together in deadly synchronization.The picture is full of suspense,thrills, mystery, and lots of blood and gore .This slick gore-feast is a triumph of style over movie logic. It's packed with overwhelming body count, excessive gore, grotesque killing, and rivers of red blood. This is one of the most original utilization of the movie-within-a-movie with terror argument, such as formerly made Lambert Bava in ¨Demons¨(1985). The picture is smartly designed ,stylishly photographed filming in Barcelona by Civit and with a suspenseful musical score by Pagan . Bigas Luna delivers the terror movie goods with sense of style. He's an expert on murky atmosphere such as proved in ¨Caniche¨, ¨Bilbao¨ and ¨Reborn¨. The picture will appeal to horror buffs and Bigas Luna fans.

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 .