"Regression" (2015) by Alejandro Amenábar

Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar made that unforgettable homage to Alfred Hitchcock, "The Others" which impressed me so much that I actually bought it on DVD - just like that movie, "Regression"has dark atmosphere, strong cast and is visually stunning, pure electricity. It basically cleverly plays with human fear of unknown, in this case religion is confronted with satanism , seemingly ordinary people who actually might be dangerous, that little old lady watching you in the street and your co-worker or neighbor who perhaps are not what they pretend to be. 

Ethan Hawke investigates what appears as routine police detective job and is helped by psychologist David Thewlis who suggest that under hypnosis (hence the title) people might remember something that they forgot under the shock - young Emma Watson (who is excellent and it might grew into first class actress later in life) is traumatized with abuse and only reluctantly admits that her father was not the only one involved, she might be victim of the whole cult whose members hide behind the curtains of this sleepy little town. While police detectives are overwhelmed with the whole scandal and media constantly alarms the listeners with the whole issue, Hawke and his colleagues slowly sink in paranoia and nightmares, their lives seriously endangered with possibility that this is a case that even FBI did not want to touch. 

Movie seriously builds up the excitement, horror and adrenaline almost to the end which inevitably does not live up to the expectations - I can understand some of the audience being disappointed with the last part, because up to the final scene we are cleverly manipulated by Amenábar to look in the wrong direction, which again in itself is pure Hitchcock who used to sadistically play around with his actors (and audience). More important than the whole issue of secret cult and paranoia is hypnosis, still not accepted as 100% sure way to unearth secrets hidden behind our unconsciousness. I always wondered about this - and was somewhat attracted to the idea of regression but never knew anybody to hypnotize me - specially as we all love to tall about past lives, for example, at the end I decided that if we don't remember past lives there might be a good reason for it and better not to play around with something that might be potentially traumatic. So for me personally this was very interesting movie because it explores some ideas that appeal to me but I can understand the disappointment of larger audience who approached it as straight thriller, without thinking about issues of psychoanalysis and hypnosis. I actually love Amenábar, his way of thinking and the way he waves his dark dreams.