Gloede_The_Saint Anguish truly is a unique experience. At one point I had to pause because my heart was beating too fast. It was the very effective visual of people struggling with the same thing on screen, had never thought a film could affect me like this. Almost wanted to throw up in parts, and just because of the sound and bizarre visuals, rather than gore. It's not just a horror movie, it's an experiment into film-within-film with audience members watching a movie at a theater about an insane killer and his mother collecting eyes - with the way it's made disturbing and upsetting many of them - and then the events in the main movie switches to the theater as well - and the claustrophobia and mental states of "the real audience" starts going wild. I can only imagine how insane it would have been watching this in a movie theater as intended. It lost some of it's power when it got more plot driven towards the very end - but it stayed incredible throughout.

ma-cortes 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.

ElijahCSkuggs Before the film even begins, a message is displayed on screen warning you about the possibility of hypnosis and dizziness etc. In my opinion, that's a great way to hype someone up. And with hype, disappointment usually follows. But not with Anguish, this was a really cool little flick.The flick actually is pretty much two movies in one. I'll only describe the first story, since if I tell you about the second, it's kinda ruining it for you. The initial story follows a son who is being hypnotized and forced into murder by his mother, played by Zelda Rubinstein, the tiny lil paranormal investigator in Poltergeist. It's a pretty simple premise at first, but once the other story kicks in, the movie's tension and entertainment value is severely upped.The direction and atmosphere is all fantastic, the only minor problems is the acting, it's pretty amateur to a degree. But there are also strong performances as well, the son/murderer did a really good job. And it's killing me trying to recall what I remember him from! And at under 90 minutes, the movie doesn't last too long. Poifect! It's a rare lil horror flick that should definitely have more of a following. With a cool idea leading the way Anguish is one flick any fan of horror or of our beloved lil Zelda should without a doubt check out.

Coventry Bigas Luna's "Anguish" is a uniquely curious and creatively constructed Spanish horror film that'll unquestionably impress you a lot more than the average routine and dull 80's (American) slasher picture. Luna presents an odd film-within-film structure and, surprisingly enough, both segments contain equal amounts of suspense, creepiness and gruesome images. At first, we follow a middle-aged and slightly insane mother-obsessed optometrist as he goes out at night to butcher as many people as possible & cut out their eyeballs for his collection. His freaky mother (the squeakily voiced midget Zelda Rubinstein) commands him under hypnosis and his modus operandi isn't exactly subtle, as John removes his victims' eyeballs sadistically and without the slightest sense of emotion. Okay, pretty twisted & sick horror tale we got here, or so you think until, after the first couple of murders, it suddenly becomes clear that mother & son's crazed adventure is just an ordinary movie being watched in a fully-occupied theater. We're subsequently introduced to two attractive young girls – one of them feeling very uncomfortable with what she sees on screen – and then "Anguish" truly becomes a one-of-a-kind experience, since a totally new (and supposedly non-fictional) psycho-killer plot develops itself parallel with the macabre (and fictional?) events on screen! Yeah okay, I realize this all sounds very confusing and perhaps even a bit stupid, but director Luno presents it all dead serious and plausible. Simultaneously with John entering a movie theater in "The Mommy" (the title of the first movie) to collect more eyeballs, an actual deranged psychopath spots the two girls and intends to kill them. The film-within-film concept has been done before, but usually very messy and resulting in a severe anti-climax. In "Anguish", however, the tension is masterfully developed and the transitions from 'old' movie to 'new' movie are literally perplexing. Michael Lerner's eyeball escapades are grotesque and really gore (with extreme close-ups of gouged out eyes…yuck), whereas Patty & Linda's nightmarish trip to the movie theater is intense and claustrophobic. The final twist is predictable, yes, as Luna attempts to connect the characters of both films with each other, but I honestly think I would have been disappointed if something similar wasn't done. The acting performances are excellent. Especially Michael Lerner and Talia Paul are splendid, and even Zelda Rubinstein is tolerable. She annoyed the hell out of me in the overrated "Poltergeist" films, but her odd appearance is ideal for an artsy Spanish horror experiment like this. "Anguish" is a terrific film for trained genre lovers, regretfully underrated and misunderstood to this date. Highly recommended!