Anguish Movie Review

Anguish is one of those movies which will surprise you; the audience won’t know what hit them until the end. It is very different from the sleuth of possession movies.

Plot

The movie opens with the death of a teenage girl by a truck. This is the girl whose spirit starts haunting the new girl, Tess, who has just moved to the town with her mother. The girl is on medication for anxiety and depression, and so her mother attributes all her unprecedented action to her pills. Soon things turn sombre and ugly. Lucy, the girl who died, wants closure with her mother after her life ended so abruptly. Apparently, after talking to the mother through Tess, she moves on. But the end leaves us feeling ambiguous.

Analysis

Anguish stands between two genres. It is neither totally a horror nor a psychological thriller. Sonny Mallhi’s directorial debut is a worthy initiative. Anguish doesn’t let you decide what to expect. Mallhi explores the characters’’ lives so fully and gives them personalities that the audience don’t see in other possession movies. The movie touches little on the teenage issues that are troubling the present generation: The loneliness, the depression, the fear of missing out and also the mild disregard for their safety. The all-female cast with the versatile protagonist surely gives the movie a different edge. The film is a muddle between the two genres which is precisely its major drawback.

Star Performance

The teenage protagonist, Tess, played by Ryan Simpkins, is a complex character. She has been portrayed excellently by Simpkins. The mothers also do admirable jobs as their characters evolve.

What’s there?

1) A different story, unlike any other horror films.

2) Well timed out attacks and effects.

3) Acknowledgment of the teenage issues shown.

What’s not there?

1) Uncertainty in the direction of the movie

2) Too much of a buildup which eventually leads nowhere

Verdict

For horror addicts, the film is very tame, and it is too exploitative for thriller lovers.