Anguish: F. Javier Gutierrez to direct remake of 1987 Bigas Luna film

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Back in 2009, it was announced that Sam Raimi would be producing a remake of the 1987 cult classic Anguish (pick up a copy HERE)… and then that plan didn't seem to go anywhere. So now producers Kiko Martinez and Antonio Perez are getting their chance to try to remake Anguish, with F. Javier Gutierrez (Rings) signed on to write and direct the film.

Written and directed by Bigas Luna, the original Anguish starred Zelda Rubinstein, Michael Lerner, Talia Paul, Clara Pastor, and Angel Jove. The synopsis: 

Teen friends Patty (Paul) and Linda (Pastor) head to a theater to watch the latest slasher movie, "Mommy," featuring a deranged matriarch (Rubinstein) who hypnotizes her son (Lerner) to steal other people's eyeballs and return them to her. Unfortunately for the girls, while the on-screen killer nabs victims in a movie theater, a deranged "Mommy" fan (Jove) creeps through the film's audience, reenacting the movie's murders in real time. 

Gutierrez had this to say about the film, and his remake: 

Anguish is a complex and terrifying film with a modern spin: An ode to theaters in the middle of this tendency to view content at home through streamers. Cinema within cinema in a sinister Freudian parallelism between reality and fiction that is obsessed with the viewer's gaze. Anguish left a mark on me for life. It is original and transgressive, hypnotic and violent, as well as a love letter to the movies and to our cinemas. It is a dream, as well as a responsibility, to bring back to the big screen the classic by Bigas Luna, one of Spain’s most personal and beloved authors."

Although I have seen Anguish, I don't remember much of it because it was a very long time ago. From what I do recall, it was one of those movies that's so unique, it's difficult to imagine another filmmaker trying to do it justice. But we'll have to wait and see what Gutierrez has in store for us. He certainly does sound like a very respectful fan of the original.