Kate Siegel is this generation’s Barbara Steele, an actress who seems to make exclusively horror films — she even co-wrote one. It remains to be seen whether she will be a horror star into her 70s, as the British-born Steele was, but Siegel’s on quite a run, with the efficient, watchable thriller “Hypnotic” the latest.
This time, Siegel is without her usual collaborator, husband Mike Flanagan, who directed or otherwise oversaw previous Siegel-starring thrillers such as “Hush,” “Ouija: Origin of Evil,” “Gerald’s Game” and the Netflix series“The Haunting of Hill House,” “The Haunting of Bly Manor”and“Midnight Mass.”
This time Siegel, under the guidance of directors Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote, must answer the question: What do you do when your hypnotherapist is a serial killer? Dare we call him a psycho therapist?
Siegel plays Jenn, a software engineer sorting through the wreckage of her breakup with fiance Brian (Jaime M. Callica). Her best friend, Gina (Lucie Guest), introduces her to her hypnotherapist, the handsome and oily-slick Dr. Collin Meade (Jason O’Mara), who brings her in for a few sessions. Just a few minutes into the movie, Jenn inexplicably tries to kill Brian. Then Gina dies.
Jenn knows Dr. Meade is behind it all, but why? And why isshenot dead? She teams with Portland police detective Rollins (Dulé Hill, who can also be seen in the reboot of“The Wonder Years”) to try and get the goods.
So, “Hypnotic” is kind of like a “Columbo” episode in that we know who the killer is in the first few minutes; the suspense is how they’re going to nail him.
This is the kind of made-for-cable-level movie where a pedestrian script (by Richard D’Ovidio) with the usual horror cliches is elevated by strong acting, no-nonsense direction and a couple of neat twists. And D’Ovidio delivers one great concept that automatically generates tension: If Dr. Meade kills through hypnotic suggestion, and Jenn has been under hypnosis several times, then she is a ticking time bomb who might be triggered at any time.
Jenn knows that she could turn from plucky heroine to femme fatale in a second.
的气氛可能会称之为“催眠”ed “affluent chic,” where every set seems to be inspired by the stylish Hollywood executive mansion settings of swanky parties attended by the production designer. Dr. Meade’s office is dark and steely, like the Batcave. The houses are roomy, glassy architecturally modern and without personality.
It is an artificial world where people like Dr. Meade — O’Mara (“The Man in the High Castle,” ” Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) delivers a deliciously slimy performance — and his ilk feel at home. For people like Jenn? She is like her suddenly untrustworthy thoughts and dreams, caught between a world of reality and a sinister world controlled by someone else’s power.
M“Hypnotic”:Horror. Starring Kate Siegel, Jason O’Mara and Dulé Hill. Directed by Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote. (Not rated. 88 minutes.) Premieres Wednesday, Oct. 27, on Netflix.