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A demented mother telepathically directs her middle-aged son on bloody missions of revenge.And when he's finished murdering his victims,he gouges their eyes out and adds them to the bizarre family collection.But that's only a movie:The real horror is in the cinema where the audience watching this terrifying vision is being murdered one by one."Angustia" is a pretty bizarre Spanish horror film.The concept is certainly interesting and the director J.J.Bigas Luna perfectly mixes the line between the reality and the fantasy world of film.The acting is first-rate and there is plenty of gore and tension to satisfy fans of slasher films.The film is relatively unknown,but if you get a chance watch it.Highly recommended.8 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.

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.

I was surprised to see some of the reviews of Anguish (Angustia). I had the opportunity of playing an L.A. cop in the film - it must have been 100 years and 25 pounds ago! As the film seems to have elicited some interest, I'll volunteer some background information.

The film was mostly shot in.... Barcelona, on an obviously shoestring budget. I was initially "signed on" as an ambulance attendant, but either my "delivery" or size turned me into a cop with a couple of lines, learned the same day as the shoot.

The exteriors for the "new movie" sequences were shot on a street created in a large parking lot in the "Zona Franca" of Barcelona. Apparently a stock background depicting Culver City Ca. was shipped to Spain, and a good portion of Barcelona's American cars were used to create the traffic background.

Did I mention the shoestring budget? Most of the scenes I participated in were shot at least twice - from different angles - because only one camera was used.

I don't say this as a criticism - if anything it is a tribute to Bigas Luna, who was able to create a piece of America on the Mediterranean, and to make a number of non-actors seem credible even with speaking roles (including yours truly).

After seeing Anguish, I know it will stay in the memory a while as it's not quite like anything else I've seen. However, outside of the central gimmick; there is unfortunately not a great deal to recommend it for. Bigas Luna's film is a horror movie within a horror movie, and as you can probably imagine from that description; it's a completely bizarre and surreal film. The title 'Anguish' seems to be a clue to the order of the day as both segments focus on putting the subjects in a state of anguish with a series of gripping occurrences. The film focuses on John Pressman; an optician with an eye problem and a strange mother. After losing his job, he goes out on a killing spree under the direction of his mother who apparently is using some sort of hypnosis. The spree goes on for a short while and then the film takes a turn for the bizarre as the focus pans out and we find ourselves in a movie theatre with a group of people watching the film we've been watching! However, it turns out all is not well there either, as one of the crowd is a maniacal killer.

The main problem I have with this film is simply that while the central idea is very good, the two segments of the story are actually quite mundane. They're both just your average 'serial killer' stories, albeit one featuring a great deal of eyeball violence. The director clearly wanted to excite his audience and get them on the edge of their seats, and while parts of the film are exciting - I didn't find myself in a state of anguish for the duration. I don't often find myself needing a particular point when it comes to serial killer flicks, but this film just feels a bit too intelligent not to have one. I can only assume that the director wanted to portray something along the lines of the idea that a potential killer could be influenced by what they are seeing on screen; although it's never really brought across. Distinctive performers Michael Lerner and Zelda Rubinstein are the pick of the cast and provide memorable leads. The film does deserve a lot of respect for going out and trying to do something a bit different and even though it doesn't come off as well as it might have; Anguish is still well worth seeing.

I have just watched "Angustia" for the fourth or fifth time, now on DVD, and I do not get tired of this original, bizarre and surrealistic cult-movie, very underrated in IMDb. I am a fan of Bigas Lune, and in my opinion "Angustia" is his masterpiece. The story is simple, but tense, with a soundtrack that recalls Dario Argento's movies. Michael Lerner, in the role of the mad ophthalmologist; Talia Paul, in the role of a scared viewer that becomes impressed with the film she is watching on the screen; and Ángel Jovè, in the role of a lunatic killer, are perfect. Zelda Rubinstein, with her weird tune of voice, completes the lead cast of this gem with a great performance. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Os Olhos da Cidade São Meus" ("The Eyes of the City Are Mine")

Note: On 28 November 2022, I saw this film again.

Michael Lerner plays a mommy-obsessed serial killer who cuts out the eyeballs of his victims to bring them back to his mother played by Zelda Rubenstein, but that's not all there is to this film. It turns out that this is just a movie playing in a movie theater and the real killer is in there and ready to slash some victims of his own.

Anguish has an inventive premise and some moments of effective bloody violence, but it's not the most emotionally involving of films and it's hard to figure out who to pull for. It works better as an artistic experiment than a normal film.

At first it's the sheer uniqueness of the characters and situations that keeps you watching. Then, after about 30 minutes, you realize that this is one imaginatively written, ambitiously conceived horror pic. The director manages to sustain the tension in both the parallel stories (the "fictional" and the "real" one) - and that's quite a directorial feat. But there ARE some minor logical flaws in this movie (the ease with which BOTH killers murder their victims and pass unnoticed in movie theaters filled with people is a little hard to believe), and the final "surprise ending" is rather contrived, perhaps even predictable if you've seen similar movies (like Wes Craven's "New Nightmare" of 1994). (**1/2)

John Pressman (Micheal 'I shoulda called Ditech' Lerner) works at a doctor's office as an orderly. His mother (Zelda 'Poltergeist' Rubenstein) hypnotizes him to off the people who see thinks wronged him. But this turns out to be a movie within a movie, but the lines soon blur as John goes a movie theater to kill. Prompting a guy who's watching the movie to do the same. Lerner is suitably over the top in this, but Zelda repeats lines of dialog over and over again. That gets annoying fast. But not as annoying as the two girls who are watching the movie within a movie.As a horror film this one fails, it's too busy trying to be clever, trying to impart a message and seems to forget a slasher film must evoke a sense of tension, or at least a jump or two. No, what we have here is the worst kind of slasher: An art-house one.

My Grade: D+

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 .

Anguish has a little gore, but it's not exactly a bloodbath, either. Anguish has a few creepy ideas, but it's not exactly the scariest movie you'll ever seen. Anguish has some scenes that approach suspense, but many fizzle out before they really get exciting.

Anguish has a lot of ideas and many of them are great, but it never commits to anything long enough for it to work as a whole film. The entire film takes place in a theater where they're showing The Mommy - a slasher/giallo film about a mama's boy who cuts out people's eyes to bring them back to his mother - and for the first 15/20 minutes we think this is the film we're watching. However, the real story is that there's a psychokiller in the theater who's become a superfan of The Mommy and he's about to stage a massacre in this auditorium.

It's an interesting concept, but the characters are too abstract for us to really feel for them, especially our main character whose only defining trait is that she's terrified of horror films and spends the entire movie wide eyed with her hands across her eyes and face.

The core concept of this film is watching a slasher movie about people in a theater... who are watching a slasher movie themselves. The main idea certainly has merits and a lot of potential but alas, writer and director Bigas Luna never achieves it.

The first slasher (the movie within the movie) has occult and psychedelic overtones but is rather silly. It does feature the only two actors worthy of the title in Lerner and Rubinstein. The second film is uninspired at best and features awful acting all around. Both suffer from drawn out scenes that go absolutely nowhere.

The most excitement regarding Anguish is when you first discover you are watching a movie within a movie and then, you wait for something clever to happen... except it never does. Poorly written, shot, acted and edited, Anguish will mostly be remembered as a cool idea that may have been ahead of its time.

Undoubtably one of the scariest and under-raved horror films of all time. Zelda Rubinstein is unforgettable, and if u liked her in the Poltergeist films she is even more stellar here. Known to horror buffs as the all-time movie within a movie... but its psychological mind-warp scene is as tense as it gets. The under-tones of the snails and doves contribute highly to the paranoia. A re-release definitely should be in order; this film deserves a second look by all. Anyone who has extreme phobia of "anything" to do with harm to the eyes- beware! Unfortunate that most mark this off as a "gore-fest" when its anything but. It is a brilliant study of the mind, and will blow you away with its oddity.

I was pleasantly surprised while watching this, finding it highly engaging. For a low budget movie, it is well-acted, well-scripted, and well shot! My only complaint is that, to me, it ran on a bit long towards the end. Pacing was good up to that point, but towards the end it felt redundant and labored. But that's a minor point on an overall fun film. Very glad to have found this gem!

Is Anguish attempting some sort of social commentary? It seems to be saying something about people who watch these kinds of filthy, disgusting films are going to go off their rockers and end up committing similar crimes in the real world. Maybe I'm way off track here, but if that's the case, it rubbed me the wrong way.

This isn't to say that Anguish doesn't have a few great ideas. The initial twist 15 minutes in does surprise and sets the film to go in an interesting direction, but besides one sequence in a restroom where a would-be-victim is trapped and has to wait for the killer to finish his job, Anguish is a little light on suspense and scares. It tries to get by on a clever concept, but a concept only goes so far if you don't care about what's going on.

Poltergeist favorite Zelda Rubinstein gives a good, creepy performance as the evil mother in the film within a film that we're seeing and there are a few nice stylistic touches, but the film itself never thrills the way it's meant to. This is one movie that could use a solid remake.

Not as bad of a movie as i was expecting and the theme of a madman being influenced by the movie[which we learn hes seen many times] and goes on a shooting rampage hits very close to home with all the H.S. violence etc and the recent shooting spree in pittsburgh. Not for the weak hearted gross in many spots but the ending is a surprise. a movie ahead of its time considering whats been going on on the the real world.

I recently watched the Spanish film 🇪🇸 Anguish (1987) on the Full Moon app via Prime. The storyline follows a controlling mother who puts her son in a trance, sending him on a killing spree. The son seems to be the perfect serial killer because even he doesn't know he's committing the murders. As the body count rises, can anyone uncover the killer's identity?

Directed by Bigas Luna (Golden Balls), the film stars Zelda Rubinstein (Poltergeist), Michael Lerner (Elf), Àngel Jové (Reborn), and Talia Paul (Born to be Wild).

This movie exceeded my expectations and is definitely underrated. The opening narration is solid and sets the tone well. Zelda Rubinstein delivers a standout performance, and her voiceover during the kill scenes adds an eerie touch. The horror elements are subtle but effective, with a particularly creative use of eyeballs throughout the film. In fact, I don't think I've seen as many eye-related scenes in any other movie. The eyeball surgery scene is especially tough to watch.

I really enjoyed the writing, especially how the plot stays tied to the events at the movie theater. The film's clever cinematography includes some well-placed first-person perspectives. While I didn't love how they uncovered the events unfolding, the ultimate ending and showdown were bold and left me smiling. There's a lot to appreciate here.

In conclusion, Anguish is a unique and underrated addition to the horror genre that's a must-see for genre fans. I would score it a 6.5-7/10 and recommend watching it at least once.

John (Michael Lerner), an orderly at a hospital, is hypnotised by his controlling midget mother (Zelda Rubinstein) who sends him to kill people and remove their eyes. After twenty two minutes of confusing horror, in which John's snail-loving 'mother' listens in on her pigeon-fancier son's murderous activities using a large shell (?!?!), it is revealed that everything we have seen thus far is a film within a film called The Mommy, being watched by an audience that includes teenagers Patty (Talia Paul) and Linda (Clara Pastor).

Terrified by the on screen carnage, Patty leaves the theatre and visits the loo, where she becomes convinced that the killer from The Mommy is lurking. She heads back to tell Linda, who reluctantly investigates and discovers that a copycat psycho (Àngel Jové) armed with a gun is preparing to go on a killing spree.

Cutting back and forth between The Mommy (a film that I doubt would draw in the crowds) and the 'real' action, director Bigas Luna experiments in mixing art-house surrealism with the slasher genre, which go together like oil and water, and chucks in some pretentious meta-cinema for good measure. The result is a woeful experience—tedious, repetitive, and thoroughly irritating (as if any film headlined by Rubinstein could be anything but!).

This was a film that I never heard of until I believe it got an updated release a year or so ago. It really did sound intriguing and I decided to make this a featured review for my first normal podcast episode for 2020. My theme was to check out movies I had never seen and I made a very long list with a randomizer and this one was selected. The synopsis here is a controlling mother uses telepathic powers to send her middle-aged son on a killing spree.

We start this with a disclaimer stating that: During this film you are about to see, you will be subject to subliminal messages and mild hypnosis. This will cause you no physical harm or lasting effect, but if for any reason you lose control or feel that your mind is leaving your body - leave the auditorium immediately.'

It then shifts to the home of Mother (Zelda Rubinstein) and John (Michael Lerner). She has an affinity for snails and things that are spiral. Her son keeps birds, which we get a weird scene where one gets out and they have to free it from behind a cupboard to get it back into its cage.

John is an orderly at an eye doctor and we get an odd scene where he puts contacts in a woman's eyes and this causes her to freak out. It is explained to her that John is extremely myopic and an uncontrolled diabetic that is going blind with an overbearing mother. This doesn't take the worries away from the woman who storms out. John goes home where his mother then hypnotizes him. He then goes there and murders her along with her husband. We then see that this is actually a movie where Patty (Talia Paul) experiences an anxiety attack and wants to leave while her friend, Linda (Clara Pastor) is engrossed in what she is seeing. Others experience similar things, including a man, Àngel Jové, who is getting more and more agitated.

Much like many of my reviews, this doesn't have the most complex story, but there's a lot here going on. The first thing I wanted to cover is the disclaimer at the beginning. I thought that was an interesting thing to start with, as it puts the notice in your head. When the parts of the movie that the hypnotisms are happening, I'm paying more attention and they're quite engaging as well, so that helps. There's more to this disclaimer about if someone talks to during the film you don't know, do not engage with them or give them your ticket, as there is psychology help after if needed. It is a gimmick, but I like the seeds it puts there.

To go over the first part of the movie with John and his mother, I found this to be quite creepy. She is overbearing and knows how to hypnotize him. It is fitting as she uses the spiral record to do so, but she also loves snails with their shell and there's a moment when she is upset and is carving a similar pattern onto wood. She thinks her son is the greatest surgeon, when he's nothing more than an orderly. She is also psychically connected to him as he does the things he has to for her. I think it is interesting that the theater John goes to looking for victims are showing the 1920's version of The Lost World. I'm assuming this is partly due to being public domain, but also being that he's lost in what he's doing.

Shifting to the movie that the people in this theater are watching, this is the first movie that we started out seeing. This is really a meta approach here, making it a movie within in a movie. As their watching though, it is inducing anxiety and disorientation to the patrons. Patty at one point goes into the bathroom and his hearing mother's voice. They're all there seeing a horror movie called The Mommy. There are other parallels between the two with what is happening in that movie and with those that are in the theater as well.

I'll move to the pacing here, which had me hooked from the beginning. It doesn't take too long to get surreal, which is the best way I can describe this. I knew that it was people watching that movie, so I wasn't shocked. I did feel there was a part as this develops though that I did lose a bit of interest. I thought it was building to something really good and then lost what it wanted to do. What it finally ended up doing at the very end did bring me back in though for sure.

I think that the acting really helps all of this as well. I grew up with Rubinstein in Poltergeist, so it is interesting to see her in this Spanish production as a villain. On top of that, Lerner is an actor I've seen before in a more secondary role. Much like with Mother, I found it interesting to see him in this role and I thought it worked. Paul I felt bad for. She really didn't want to be in this movie any longer and Linda was ignoring her. Seeing her breakdown was pretty powerful. I can't blame Pastor though. As a cinephile, I don't like to be bothered if I'm that engrossed. I also think there's some social commentary here of those watching this film without knowing what is going on around them and how sucked in we get for sure as well as just wanting to watch John as well as Mother do these horrible things to people. That is prevalent with Jové which I also thought did good. The rest of the cast rounded this out as well for what was needed.

As for the effects, I thought they were good. This really focuses on eyes, which I think plays back into my last point about audiences seeing things while not doing anything about it. There's eye trauma that had me cringe a bit. The movie does cut away though so we really see the beginning and end of these attacks. The eyes that are used looked pretty real though to be honest. I also thought the blood looked good and the rest of the gore that we did get. The cinematography was really good as well.

The last thing to cover is the soundtrack. I thought that it was used very well, especially in the hypnotizing scenes. It really had my anxiety going up, which is effective in my book. I also like when people start to talk to the screen and it is synced up where it seems they're talking back. This is partially good editing, but I was impressed either way.

Now with that said, I'm glad I finally checked this one out. There's some really meta things about a film like this that came out over 30 years ago. I really like the commentary here about use as an audience with what we're seeing and how we don't notice what is going on around us. This becomes quite scary that people have really shot up theaters so seeing people attacked in one is unnerving. I think that the writer and director, Bigas Luna, strategically used The Lost World. He also constructed a film that got my anxiety going through images and sounds. The acting was really solid across the board and I thought the effects were too. I found this to be a good movie for sure and would recommend giving this one a viewing, especially if you're more into meta horror.

This movie reminded me of many others at some points but at the same time seemed original. It was fun to watch and even though there was a lot of gore, I could stand it since I was so puzzled by the exact plot and motives. The movie inside of a movie plot worked wonders here and the appearances of Zelda Rubinstein made me want to give this an 8, since they made the characters seem as though twirling their hair would take too much intelligence.