10 Best Horror Movies Set In A Cinema

2. Anguish

 Coming Soon
Luna Films
"During the film you are about to see, you will be subject to subliminal messages and mild hypnosis."

To put your nerves on edge, that's the message you're greeted with when watching 1987's Anguish. Immediately after that, you're told to watch your surroundings and do not speak to any strangers - all adding further to the intrigue and dread of what's about to be served up on the screen.

Whereas some of the movies featured here revolve around films within a film, Anguish manages to go one better and deliver a story that's a film within a film within a film.

Anguish opens with some moviegoers at The Rex watching a feature called The Mommy. Starring Poltergeist's Zelda Rubinstein, The Mommy focusses on a mother who hypnotizes her partially blind son into going out and removing people's eyes with a scalpel.

As our protagonists watch The Mommy, the events of the picture begin to be mirrored in the movie theater - all culminating in a police shootout!

One of the survivors of this trauma, Patty, is taken to hospital, where she is soon visited by John, a man shot dead by the police after killing several people during the screening of The Mommy.

From there, though, the camera pans out to reveal that the antics of Patty, John and the rest of The Mommy's audience were all part of another movie, before Anguish then rolls its credits.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.