The star of the recent Netflix miniseries Midnight Mass, Kate Siegel took over the horror genre, working alongside director Mike Flanagan, and became an almost undisputed horror queen. With its thrilling trailer and the presence of the actress, Siegel’s latest film Hypnotic set fan expectations high, to leave many of them confused and disappointed. The film follows the story of Jenn Tompson (Siegel), who has had a miscarriage and, on the wise advice of her friend, seeks help from psychotherapist Dr. Collin Meade (Jason O’Mara), who specializes in ‘hypnosis. Meade (apparently, not for the first time) abuses her power and takes control of Jenn’s mind, causing her to suffer blackouts, during which she commits actions that serve the doctor’s agenda.
In recent years, Kate Siegel has become inseparable from Mike Flanagan, who also happens to be her husband, starring in most of her movies. The horror power couple took Netflix by storm, delivering masterpieces that included silence, Gerald’s game, The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manorand the most recent Midnight Mass. Flanagan and Siegel met on the set of his very first horror movie Oculusfeaturing Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Who Karen Gillan, and forged a successful professional and personal relationship that spawned so many horror fan favorites.
Hypnotic, however, was directed by Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote with a screenplay by Richard D’Ovidio, bringing a different direction and tone to the film and pushing Siegel out of his comfort zone. Even so, the fact that she was cast as the lead was enough to get many fans excited and hoping for the usual austere performance and tingling tension that made her Flanagan movies so great. So what went wrong?
The best trailers are meant to build excitement and show previews of the upcoming film without revealing its main twists or giving too many details – otherwise they might as well be called “recaps”. Unfortunately, Hypnotic the trailer did the exact opposite. It showed most of the exciting scenes, revealed the villain, his background, and even some of his motivations. With that out in the open, the movie which is pretty straightforward, to begin with, didn’t have much else to offer its audience.
On top of that, the trailer’s final scene where Meade tells Jenn she can wake up now suggested an almost Creation-like a twist, which, in reality, can barely compare to what the movie delivered.
Fans of Flanagan and Siegel have been expecting a mind-blowing final twist that brings the pieces together and throws all expectations and predictions into the air. In The haunting of Hill House, it was the Bent-Neck Lady, in The Haunting of Bly Manor — the narrator, and in Midnight Mass – the vampires. In Hypnotic, however, the villain is painfully obvious from the start. And while fans might have hoped for an unexpected twist, alas, the evil hypnotherapist really is the culprit.
On top of that, the very title of the movie removes any doubts the audience might have had and makes the supposedly mysterious elevator opening scene obvious. It is as if Thesilenceofthelambs was called “Buffalo Bill sews suits in Lippman’s house”.
Siegel’s character in silence is resourceful, intelligent and responds to danger with quick ingenuity. Supporting characters from other Flanagan films are also relatable and mostly make logical choices (or at least in line with their characters). However, in Hypnoticsome of Jenn’s or her friends’ actions can only be encountered with facepalms.
Why would the main heroine Google her new therapist, whom she trusts to mess with her head, only after nearly killing her ex-boyfriend? Why would her friend, who already knows Meade can make people do things just by talking to them, take a call from an unknown number, and, what’s even more confusing, why not hang up when she hears the voice doctor? Why would a detective (Dulé Hill) go to a suspect’s home without backup? Why would Jenn go alone to Xavier Sullivan’s on the day that was clearly planted in her head, even though she thought she was going to see her torturer’s mentor, who, by the way, is known for his mind-controlling abilities? the mind ? ? There are too many questions, unlikely scenarios, and not-so-smart choices to make the characters relatable or even likable.
In the film, hypnotherapy is presented as a magical technique that grants the therapist unlimited power over their patients – so much so that a few words from Meade can invoke hallucinations, put a person into a trance or even paralyze them. According to Hypnoticall a doctor needs to do to achieve this is use the person’s full name and a trigger phrase, the highly debatable concept that has been made popular by movies like Telephone, Serenityand Captain America: Civil Warwhere sleeper agents are activated once they hear a keyword.
In fact, hypnosis is a useful technique that, when used correctly, can help patients to let go of bad habits, recover repressed memories, and cope with many psychological issues including depression and mental illness. anxiety. Although the use of key phrases (always chosen by the client) can help accelerate the state of deep relaxation, on average it takes the most skilled therapists at least a few minutes to bring a person into a trance. By choosing easy excitement and scares over the accurate depiction of this medical technique, Hypnotic only achieves one thing – to give real-life hypnotherapists a bad name.
While some people liked Hypnotic As an entertaining and easy Halloween watch, many fans of Siegel’s previous work found it lacking in suspense, exciting twists, relatable characters, and even decent scares. The actress is currently involved in a series adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wifebased on Audrey Niffenegger’s novel, while Flanagan works on the upcoming Netflix horror series, The Midnight Club. Fans can only hope that the pair will reunite again soon, churning out more of the high-quality, biting films that have become their trademark and earned them an unremittingly loyal following.
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