Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

sunznc This is one of those films that starts out promising and then a quarter of the way through you realize that you've picked up something that is going to be a disappointment. And you'd be right. This is also one of those films that shows the audience watching the film and that in itself is a novel idea if done right and this isn't. What starts out as atmospheric and intense ends with a somewhat predictable and annoying end. Too bad too because the acting is actually quite good. Lot of money went into the sets and production design. Lot of work went into picking out just the right props. The film has a lot going for it including the original story but it isn't executed well. Why didn't they just make this a straight film? It could have been a great horror flick. I say skip this and hunt out a different horror flick. If you want eyeball horror watch "Mansion of the Doomed".

ThrownMuse I'm not sure why this 1980s horror film is so overlooked. It is a very unique film, if a bit gimmicky. It stars Tangina (wait, I mean, Zelda Rubenstein, of course!) as a psycho-mommy whose relationship is a bit too tight with her son. In fact, she hypnotizes him on a nightly basis and has him going out about town, gouging out people's eyeballs for her personal collection! Just when you think the story couldn't get more bizarre, it does. This is definitely for fans of films about messed-up mother/son relationships. For those who can't stomach Tangina, you still might get a kick out of this truly original 80s horror flick. It's been compared to "Demons," but such a comparison is superficial. Beware, most reviews on this one feature major plot spoilers!

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!

EVOL666 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