Anguish

There's not much to be said about Sonny Mallhi's languid psychological drama - moonlighting as a possession-centered horror film - that hasn't already been said by the title.

Anguish isn't the scariest or most original thriller but it's a surprisingly involving and creepy one.

If ever a film failed to live up to its title... mild impatience, more like it.

A film called Anguish hardly sounds enticing but I think I'd prefer anguish to what this arthouse horror actually serves up, which is plain tedium.

We get a fair bit of indie-aimless drifting, with some hokey jump-scares weirdly bolted on, borrowed from Carrie and The Exorcist.

This type of horror film should leave a lasting impression but Anguish languishes lost and anxious in sub-genre limbo.

Preoccupied with the haunting of both an individual and a community, Anguish has its creepy moments - but these are offset by an autumnal lyricism, and a focus on the interplay between Tess' teen alienation and her fraught attempts to find her place.

Stand[s] out from the glut of more recent horror efforts, particularly graphic and gruesome "torture porn"... A haunting and emotionally moving mood piece.

This is a horror movie that starts with characters and then moves to scares, a rare thing these days, and because we do care for these characters so much, it's that much more terrifying when their very souls are at stake.

Anguish highlights four people in various degrees of mental and emotional pain, and while the narrative tissue here is a supernatural one the beating heart beneath it all is as real and affecting as they come.