Anguish
What starts out as a typical 80s slasher turns into something with a quite brilliant and effective gimmick. The plot follows an orderly in an eye clinic played by Michael Lerner who after being hypnotized by his bizarre mother, goes on a murder rampage during which time he removes the eyeballs of his victims. It’s always cool to see a name actor (particularly an Oscar nominee like Lerner) take on these kind of b-grade psycho roles to probably pay the bills, as the viewer can wonder just how far the movie will go with the gore and nastiness with someone like that in the lead. Admittedly the gore ain’t too shabby here. Then there is Zelda Rubinstein as his mother: After freaking people out of all ages as Tangina in the Poitergeist movies, here she plays an even freakier character, especially during the hypnotism scenes. They’re the type of scenes that can actually fuck with your head if you pay too close attention to them, but the problem is that certain aspects (particularly Zelda’s dialogue) tend to get a bit too repetitive. Then there is the film’s MAJOR twist, suffice to say that timing is everything, and director Bigas Luna pulls out that twist (which changes the entire perspective of the film) just a little bit too early, and it takes the focus off the weird main story at that juncture. However, once things pick up when Lerner goes looking for victims in a movie theatre, the movie is great fun to watch in terms of its craziness and anything-goes nature, and Talia Paul as the heroine is very cute and trembly as well. In the end, while not the masterpiece it could have been, a good fun horror that must have been a hell of a time to watch during its theatrical release…
8/10