Rating: R
Genre:
Thriller
Theatrical Release: 04/23/2004(USA
Release Date: 09/14/2004
SubTitles: Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD5.1/DD2
Run Time: 103 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language, Children in Peril
Distributor/Studio: First Look Pictures
A hypnotist with psychic talents is drawn into a criminal case with bizarre implications in this
thriller from Great Britain.
Dr. Michael Strother (
Goran Visnjic) is a psychologist and hypnotherapist who has relocated from the United States to England after an ugly incident in which a boy under
Strother's care died while swimming, possibly due to a mistakenly triggered hypnotic suggestion.
Strother sometimes sees visions which he believes are images from the minds of his patients, and while hypnotizing
Janet Losey (
Shirley Henderson), a police detective who is trying to give up cigarettes, he sees a terrifying vision of a girl trapped beneath the surface of a stream.
Strother learns that the girl in his vision is
Heather, a teenager who has recently disappeared; when found, she's disoriented, unable to speak, and has strange new tattoos on her arms. Despite the pleas of his wife
Clara (
Miranda Otto) to keep his distance,
Strother becomes involved in the case, and with the help of
Elliot (
Paddy Considine), a dealer in fantasy games, he learns that the bizarre gibberish
Heather has been spouting are part of the rituals of an outmoded religious rite. As
Strother and
Losey dig deeper into the bizarre crime, they're led into a twisted web of intrigue, violence, and religious fanaticism.
Hypnotic was adapted from the
Madison Smartt Bell novel
Doctor Sleep, which was also the film's working title.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
;)
