Anguish (2015)
Matt Boiselle
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Starring Ryan Simpkins, Annika Marks, Karina Logue
Directed by Sonny Mallhi
With a strong producing credit to his account (The Strangers), Sonny Mallhi decided to toss his chips into the pile and go all in with his first directorial foray, Anguish. Instead of opting for a slam-bang introduction to horror fans, he chose a less bumpy road, leading them by their hands down the darkened corridors as opposed to having them strap on their Nikes and sprint towards safer ground… different choice, yes. A successful one? Only time will tell.
Now, on to the dissection.
Anguish is centered around the fractured relationship between an over-medicated daughter named Tess (Simpkins) and her overprotective mother (Marks) as they venture into (hopefully) a renewed accord with each other at the request of the young girl’s therapist. Unbeknownst to the two, a supernatural entity will show its face to Tess, eerily looking back at a similar broken bond between a mother and daughter before a horrific event ended the daughter’s life… and we’re travelin’ back in time! Well, almost. The notion of Tess’s mental framework is delved into rather intensively to help the audience grab some sort of foothold as to how she got to this point, and after she becomes more and more agitated and unstable at the sight of the dead girl plaguing her conscious mind, her mother seems dead-set on passing this off as a situation that might require an exorcist – way to think rationally, Ma!!
As I alluded to earlier, the movie uses more of a heavily implied dramatic theme, with horror on its fringes, therefore never truly breaching the “scared the crap out of me” boundaries. It is a slow burn, and it is helped along by some fairly strong performances by both Simpkins and Marks; however, fans who are looking for a quicker paced white-knuckler will more than likely be willing to pass this one by and opt for something a little more rapid in tempo.
Worth a watch if you’d like things to slow down around you to a crawl… a one-timer if nothing more. The fate of this one will truly lie in the eyes of the prospective audience.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
