Anguish (1986)

Anguish (R)

"The EYES have it"

An Italian Gialo with ideas to spare, Anguish starts as a typical 80s slasher with a penchant for eye-torture and hypnosis, when suddenly the story pulls out to be about the theater patrons watching that film with events inside and surrounding the theater mirroring  the on screen schlock with realistic tension and violence.  The movie resembles a Russian Matryoshka nesting doll, with films within films and meanings within themselves.  More than the sum of its parts, this critic only wishes this could be viewed in a darkened cinema where the theater scares could actually creep up on you.

Starring the incomparable little lady from Poltergeist (Zelda Rubenstien) as the psychotic mother who is brainwashing her son to kill kill kill, the movie jumps on and off screen with an admirable craft that has to be seen to be believed.  The Italian crew both attain an authentic 80s nostalgia while creating a 1980s American street scene from scratch in some European town.  Hypnotic on and off the screen.

8 New Meanings to "The Eyes Have It" out of 10 (GREAT)