Year: 1987
Director: Bigas Luna
Writer: Bigas Luna & Michael Berlin
Starring: Michael Lerner, Zelda Rubenstein
Anguish is a mad, long-forgotten curiosity from the 80’s that is quite an experience, not necessarily a great film, but certainly something worth seeing, especially at the cinema.
I don’t want to give too much away, because the central conceit is such a shock when it’s revealed, but basically about a third or maybe half way through the film there is a sudden revelation that turns the whole film on it’s head and splits the film in two. The first part tells the story of a troubled optometrist’s assistant (played by popular supporting actor Michael Lerner, given a welcome lead role) who is controlled by his overbearing mother (played by Poltergeist show-stealer Zelda Rubenstein) into a vicious killing spree where he cuts out his victim’s eyes.
This core of the film is quite effective, with some hammy but entertaining performances leading us through a bizarre and gory slasher story that is pretty mad at times, but still quite effective. Unfortunately, when the ‘revelation’ occurs mid-way through the film, everything goes a bit wrong. It’s an original and very interesting idea, but for me it spoiled the impact of the story that had already been developed, and any tension is lost because from then on the film jumps around too much.
That said, the film is certainly made memorable because of it’s eccentricities, and although it doesn’t always work, the premise does make it the fascinating curiosity that it is. So as an entertaining experiment it’s a film I’m glad I caught before it disappears.
Reviewed by David Brook