“Hypnotic” is a thriller about all the dangerous powers of the hypnotherapy, but is it strong enough to last in the brain for a week after seeing it?
This raunchy, cheesy Netflix movie only occasionally reaches its wild premise potential, thanks in large part to Jason O’Mara’s crazy meat-licking eyes. He knew exactly what material he was working with here. Most of the time, “Hypnotic” sucks, but it’s never enough.
Not to get confused with the Ben Affleck/Robert Rodriguez film:
“Hypnotic” of the same name, currently in production. The stars longtime horror actress Kate Siegel (“The Haunting of Hill House”, “Midnight Mass”). As a woman turned woman named Jen. He is an unemployed software engineer who recently broke up with his longtime girlfriend (Jaime M. Kalika) and felt trapped.
We know she’s sad because she wears wide, inconsistent sweats throughout the day. Not the expensive sunbeds in fashion during the pandemic.
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At a gala party for her best friend Gina (Lucy Guest), Jen meets Gina’s therapist, Dr Colin Mead (O’Mara) knows. Our first warning sign for him is that. He communicates so freely with his patients (the second is his tendency to pair turtlenecks with blazers). But he dazzled with his steel-blue eyes and rich, squeaky voice.
O’Mara has played Batman in several DC Comics animated films. So Jen decided to visit him for a meeting and sort things out. The sad, black and silver office decor and split diopter are early signs that Dr Mead’s intentions may not be entirely honourable. (It’s also an indication that directors Matt Angel and Susan Kutt have seen a lot of Brian De Palma’s films.)
However, an hour of hypnosis passed as if it were only minutes. And when Jen woke up, she immediately felt distant. “I think you’re probably more open to suggestion than you ever thought,” Dr Mead said with a wink.
But when suddenly he can no longer long judge periods. And bad things happen to the people around him, he begins to ask questions. As an amateur detective, he silly Google searches for “Hypnotic Crime” and then prints out. The actual results to argue with a sceptical Gina.
Dr Mead, on the other hand, has skills everywhere and shows up wherever Jen goes.
Enlighten them with subtle answers to their every concern and further confuse their minds. The humble Dulle Hill didn’t get much of a role as the Portland Police Detective.
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Who had been investigating Mead’s patient — and his untimely death, it seems — for years. It’s also practical (and unlikely) that it doesn’t have a cell phone charger in the car. Which makes it unavailable at a crucial moment.
What’s going on here is so simple but so insane that you’d expect the filmmakers to explore it for maximum fun screaming at the screen. Possible what Dr Mead here is endless and has provided the basis for more interesting psychological thrillers in the past. (Unfortunately, naming these titles would reveal too much.) Angel and Kut are working on the screenplay for Richard D’Ovidio.
They also wrote “The Call” in 2013, with Halle Berry as a 911 cameraman who chases a kidnapper. It was a legally tense B film with several failed action series and a heroine pushed in the middle with a laser focus on her target. Nothing is convincing in Hypnotic.
Until a busy and noisy climax, Siegel’s performance is mostly about reacting to what is done to him. Nothing in his character other than his appearance was essential to making Dr Mead win for Jen. And at some point, when he found out she was following him and his life was in danger, he just returned to his apartment and curled up on the couch.
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On the other hand, if you browse Netflix and come across Hypnotic, this is most likely in the same position as you. Could you stay away from him?
