The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMovie reviews

Anguish

Anguish | Movie review
24 March 2016
Thomas Unsted
Avatar
Thomas Unsted
24 March 2016

Movie and show review

Thomas Unsted

Anguish

★★★★★

Release date

1st April 2016

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

FacebookWebsite

With a host of credits to his name as a producer, including The Lake House and Spike Lee’s Oldboy, Sonny Mallhi makes his writing and directing debut with Anguish, opening his career behind the camera with a horror movie centred on themes of the occult and motherhood.

In a provincial American town, Tess, a girl in her early teens, is diagnosed with a Dissociative Identity Disorder that induces intense hallucinogenic episodes. Slowly, however, during these episodes Tess begins to channel the spirit of another girl, Lucinda, who has recently died in the town. Both Tess and Lucinda’s mothers have to help Tess and the spirit of Lucinda overcome these possessions.

Anguish attempts to marry both the conventions of the horror possession narrative with a drama about grief and loss. Sadly, it succeeds with neither. As a horror movie, the jump-out-your-seat shocks never produce all that much other than a small flinch, nor does the manner in which the subject is dealt with work under the skin to internalise the horror in the viewer; as a drama there is never any emotional connection with the characters, leaving the viewer with a feeling of complete flatness when the credits roll.

These failings are born out mainly from an underwhelming script – one that any horror fan with feel they have encountered too many times – and a style of editing that is too concerned with being stylish than making sure the film is well constructed and that sequences are developed coherently. There are, however, flashes of interesting ability from debutant director Sonny Mallhi: several scenes early on involve camera movement and sound design to create moments of unsettling beauty. These moments are frustratingly far too few, and, while not awful, Anguish is by and large a stale, boring and lifeless movie.   

★★★★★

Thomas Unsted

Anguish is released nationwide on 1st April 2016.

Watch the trailer for Anguish here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

 

 

 

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Moxie

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Notturno

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

The Winter Lake

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Lucky

★★★★★
Jacob Kennedy
Read More

Justine

★★★★★
Abbie Grundy
Read More

Foster Boy

★★★★★
Jim Compton-Hall
Read More

Crazy About Her

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Bigfoot Family

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Judas and the Black Messiah

★★★★★
James Humphrey
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Thomas Unsted

Anguish

★★★★★

Release date

1st April 2016

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

FacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Detroit Stories – Alice Cooper
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Judas and the Black Messiah
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Laura Mvula – Under a Pink Moon
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Toll
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • Black Bear
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • Big vs Small
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • No táxi do Jack (Jack’s Ride): An interview with director Susana Nobre
    Berlinale
  • I’m Your Man (Ich bin dein Mensch): An interview with stars Dan Stevens and Maren Eggert
    Berlinale
  • I’m Your Man: An interview with Maria Schrader and Jan Schomburg
    Berlinale
  • I’m Your Man (Ich bin dein Mensch) press conference
    Berlinale
  • Moxie
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Souad
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • We (Nous)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Bicep at Saatchi Gallery Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Winter Lake
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Half Moon Run at the Roundhouse | Live review
My First Ballet: Sleeping Beauty at the Peacock Theatre | Dance review