review

ANGUISH

Existing somewhere in that What The Fuck grey area of filmmaking governed by the likes of Lynch and Jodorowsky, ANGUISH is one of the most interesting and utterly frustrating films I have ever seen.


And I've seen a lot of Godard.


Watching this film brought back a lot of memories of the first time I ever watched EL TOPO, drunk on gin and tonics at four in the morning. I knew I was missing something. I knew I wasn't getting it. But I kept on watching it, hoping I'd figure something out. Once the film was over, I realized I still had no clue. So I passed out. When I woke up I had a killer headache, something that I'm positive had more to do with EL TOPO and less to do with Beefeater.


I didn't revisit EL TOPO for over eight years, but having seen it again since, I realize that I didn't get it simply because I wasn't being receptive to it. A film like that has to be absorbed without reflection. Just let it in and you'll wrap your brain around it later. ANGUISH is the same sort of film.


Mother and Son

The term post-modern got tossed around a lot in the years after SCREAM. Films started referencing other films, referencing themselves, featuring characters that spell out the cliches of situations before wandering into them themselves. And for awhile there it was cute and fun. Now I wanna kill any person who asks me "what's your favorite scary movie?". Having heard a good deal about the self-reflexive nature of ANGUISH I was a bit hesitant to watch it. I knew from it's reputation that it would be a good, interesting film, but I wasn't ready to deal with yet another film that openly dealt with and/or critiqued itself and it's audiences. If there's anything to say about the nature of violence in the media and it's effects on it's viewers, PEEPING TOM and CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST have already said it. So I decided that if I were to watch ANGUISH, I'd wait until I worked my way through my backlist of titles I have yet to watch.


But after watching LIPS OF BLOOD and SCALPS, I figured I might as well watch it. I mean, what the hell? Can't be any worse than those two films, can it?


Thankfully, it wasn't. In fact, it falls just short of greatness.


This is not a film that can be easily discussed without spoiling many of the surprises. So consider this your SPOILER WARNING!!!


Patty and Linda in the real world

ANGUISH has a film within a film structure. Film number one concerns a hospital orderly named John who murders people for their eyes at the behest of his domineering mother. This is no ordinary mother and son. They have a psychic link and, throughout the film, he hears her commanding him to do her bidding. Soon, John grows weary of following his mother's orders and decides to lay siege to an entire theater in order to prove to his mother, once and for all, that he does not need her. The second film concerns the audience watching the first film in a theater. The primary focus is on two girls, Linda and Patty. Patty is scared out of her wits by the film and she's convinced that there's something odd about the guy sitting down the aisle. Turns out she was right and soon after our make-believe psycho starts his theater massacre, the weird guy from down the aisle starts his own.


The last half of the movie is quite simply genius as the two situations play out against and with one another. Actions and whole scenarios carry over from one reality to another and director Bigas Luna has a field day with it. Using multiple layers of sound and some very brilliant framing, the whole last half of the film feels like a completely different creature, quick and exciting whereas the first half is campy and aggravating.


In a way, I was reminded of Lamberto Bava's DEMONS during the last half of the film. In that film, people are turned into bloodthirsty creatures because of the evil present in the celluloid of a rather pathetic horror film. While the carnage in ANGUISH might not reach the levels of Bava's film, the violence on display is much more realistic and much more disturbing. The notion that exposure to violent media can make you into a violent person is still a much debated topic. I personally believe that it can act as a trigger but not a cause. ANGUISH, however, argues that it does or, at the very least, can.


An unfortunate victim of the film

The real world killer in this movie repeatedly checks his watch, timing out his actions to the on-screen film, speaking out its lines, re-enacting the film as it unfolds. The lady at the concession stand asks him how many times he's seen the film, turns out he's a repeat viewer, right before he guns her down. When mother begins her hypnosis of John, characters in the audience begin to feel it's effects. This says very little about not only our maturity as horror movie fans but also thumbs it's nose at our ability to house strong morals and a fully-functioning conscience. If we were so easily led, solving the problem of violence in society would be simple. Imagine the brainwashing scene in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE only with McDowell watching Barney and Mickey Mouse cartoons. Problem solved.


The perfect visual metaphor

Director Bigas Luna is known for his arty, high-gloss films like JAMON, JAMON and THE AGES OF LULU so it should come as no surprise that, at times, the film sometimes wanders into the realm of the avant-garde. Though not a total mood-killer, some of the hypnosis scenes seem to go on forever and reoccur far too frequently. A totally unlikely horror film director, Luna appears to have taken on this film not for the opportunity to tell a good horror story but to dissect and examine the very act of watching a horror story unfold. Characterization ranges from the campy b-movie ramblings of it's film within the film to the more realistic emotions of the real world film. As such, ANGUISH is a film that veers back and forth so frequently that it ties it's audiences emotions in knots and sometimes muddles their reactions. It's hard to gain footing in this film in that regard.


All in all, ANGUISH will be a treat for many horror fans. It tells it's story well and tells it with style. Those who just want another run-of-the-mill slasher film should look elsewhere as this is truly anything but.


Highly recommended.



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