Anguish (1987) International Spectrafilm/Horror RT: 88 minutes Rated R (language, violence, gore) Director: Bigas Luna Screenplay: Bigas Luna Music: Jose Manuel Pagan Cinematography: Josep M. Civit Release date: January 8, 1988 (US) Cast: Zelda Rubinstein, Michael Lerner, Talia Paul, Angel Jove, Clara Pastor, Isabel Garcia Lorca, Jose M. Chucarro, Antonella Murgia, Josephine Borchaca, Kit Kincannon, Marc Maloney, Jasmine Parker, Tatiana Thauven, Joy Blackburn. Box Office: $228,789 (US)
Rating: *** ½
At first glance, Anguish appears to be yet another horror flick about a creepy momma’s boy with a homicidal streak. That’s exactly what I thought the first time I saw it. It unceremoniously opened in theaters back in January ’88. I caught a Saturday afternoon matinee at the Bryn Mawr, a theater not known for showing low budget B-movies like this. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why it was playing there. That is, until about the 20-minute mark.
Something happens in Anguish that distinguishes it from other horror movies. At this point, I’ll only say that a parallel narrative is introduced. Once it kicks in, the movie transcends the genre to a different plane of existence, one reserved exclusively for truly original films. It certainly took me by surprise. But I should have known something was up with Anguish. It has this weird vibe from the word go. It’s the kind of vibe only found in giallo horror films except that it was produced in Spain, not Italy. While I wouldn’t exactly call Anguish a life-changing experience, I will say it’s positively brilliant.
The tagline on the poster reads, “The eyes of the city are mine.” It’s a direct quote from the movie, one that succinctly sums up the main plot. It’s uttered by Alice (Rubinstein, Poltergeist), a clearly psychotic woman who controls her crazed son John (Lerner, Harlem Nights) through hypnosis and some sort of paranormal mind control. She believes that collecting eyes will cure her son’s condition; he’s myopic and on the verge of going completely blind. After a hypnosis session, he goes out and removes people’s eyes with a scalpel.
One night, John goes to a local movie theater and goes to work on various audience members. This is where Anguish throws a curve ball at its audience. The camera slowly pulls back to reveal that everything we’ve seen thus far is, in actuality, a movie (“The Mommy”) being watched by an audience that includes two teenage girls, Patty (Paul) and Linda (Pastor). Patty is freaked out by what’s happening on screen and wants to leave. Her friend insists that she stay. As it so happens, there’s a psychotic killer (Jove) in that audience too. The action in this plotline parallels what happens in the original plotline. Yeah, it’s pretty freaky!
The subsequent home entertainment releases of Anguish include an introductory warning to viewers that watching the film could result in headaches or being hypnotized (presumably by Alice’s spinning spiral). I like this. It’s a cool homage to the gimmick-based low budget horror movies of the 60s and 70s; specifically, the ones where free barf bags or bogus insurance policies were handed to viewers as they entered the theater. But why wasn’t it included in the theatrical release? Or on the poster for that matter? I don’t know if it would have lured more people into the theater, but it still would have been a cool bonus.
But even without it, Anguish is still great. Rubinstein is amazing as the psychotic, overprotective mother. The quiet malevolence in her voice is positively chilling. Lerner does a great job in making his character come off as an overgrown child with an unnatural bond to his mother. I love that writer-director Bigas Luna doesn’t waste precious screen time by having a psychiatrist explain the nature of their psychological issues. In fact, he doesn’t explain their psychic connection at all. It’s this sense of ambiguity that makes Anguish so unsettling a horror film. He also has a good handle on narrative in that the plot never gets convoluted. Luna manages to hold it together all the way to the final frame. In less capable hands, it would have fallen apart at the end.
While not exactly a bloodbath like most Euro-horror movies, it has some decent gore effects. It’s sufficiently suspenseful too. Anguish really is a well-made film. It’s weird, creepy and compelling throughout. Granted, it’s not for all tastes, especially not the squeamish. But for all you adventurous moviegoers, you’ll want to take a look. Just be sure to not to look directly at the spiral …. or else.
