Anguish

Anguish (1987)

Genres - Mystery, Horror, Thriller  |   Sub-Genres - Psychological Thriller, Slasher Film  |   Release Date - Jan 29, 1988 (USA)  |   Run Time - 85 min.  |   Countries - Spain  |   MPAA Rating - R
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Synopsis by Cavett Binion

Poltergeist-purger Zelda Rubinstein toplines this interesting, twisty psycho-thriller from Spain, which makes clever (though repetitive) use of its movie-within-a-movie premise. As the star of the horror film "The Mommy," Rubinstein plays a mother who hypnotizes her son (Michael Lerner) into seeking more victims to supply her growing collection of human eyeballs. "The Mommy" seems also to exert a weird hypnotic effect on the audience watching it, particularly one impressionable fellow who mirrors Lerner's actions by stalking fellow movie patrons... just as the onscreen murderer is entering a movie theater to do the same thing. If this sounds confusing, that's probably because it is. The interesting premise wears thin about halfway through, with the relentless attempts at viewer disorientation becoming more tiresome than frightening.

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Keywords

movie-within-a-movie, copy-cat, hypnosis, murder, theater, audience, dementia, eye, collecting, obsession, serial-killer, killing, rampage, mental-illness, mutilation, slasher