Hypnotic (Doctor Sleep/Close Your Eyes) (2002)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Trailer-Slash, Sol Goode Main Menu Audio & Animation Theatrical Trailer-2 Interviews-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	98:58
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (75:28)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Nick Willing
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Goran Visnjic Paddy Considine Shirley Henderson Miranda Otto Corin Redgrave Claire Rushbrook Fiona Shaw Josh Richards Sarah Woodward Andrew Woodall
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Simon Boswell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Whilst seemingly successful in curing Janet from her addiction to cigarettes, it's a passing comment about what Janet has seen during her time under hypnosis by Dr. Strother that dramatically impacts on the young woman. At once understanding that Dr. Strother can perhaps see more that what meets the eye, Janet reveals her full identity, a police inspector. Janet has been working on a case involving several murders, collectively known as the 'Tattoo Murders'. Several young children have been found in the London area dead, all with the same cause of death: foreign blood injected in their veins and strange tattoos on their bodies. Janet Losey has been working on the case, and when Michael Strother is able to describe the only survivor of the Tattoo Murders from a vision in her own head under hypnosis, Janet knows that she might have a lead on the case. The only problem is that Dr. Strother isn't all that interested in helping Janet on the case. When she points out that he works for cash and that the tax department might be somewhat interested in his business, he quickly becomes compliant, although reluctantly so.

    The only survivor of the Tattoo Murders is a young girl held in protective custody by the police, and ever since her traumatic experience she has been unable to speak a word. Under hypnosis by Dr. Strother, the young victim is able to mutter a few incoherent phrases while the doctor strangely is visited by the images of an older man while his subject is under hypnosis. Although he wishes that he could ignore these images, he knows that they are linked to the case and the perpetrator of the crime. Meanwhile, the doctor's wife Clara (Miranda Otto), is becoming suspicious of the relationship between her husband and the police detective.

    As the pair delve deeper into the strange abduction of the young girl, they come to the knowledge of a strange man, Francis Paladine, that believed that he could keep his consciousness alive forever. As the two come closer to the truth, they find that he just may have been right, despite having been dead for 500 years!

    This is one of those strange cases when we in Region 4 get the film before its theatrical release in Region 1. When you find that this is an English thriller with a largely foreign cast, it begins to be a bit understandable as to why. While Goran Visnjic is known to many for his portrayal of Dr. Luka Kovac in the popular U.S. programme E.R., this young Croatian actor is probably otherwise largely unknown. As I've not seen many episodes of E.R., I wasn't aware of his identity. That said, Goran, along with the rest of the cast from this production do a reasonably good job here.

    Filmed in 2002 with a modest budget, Director Nick Willing has done a good job here in making something that is fairly engaging and entertaining. While not in the same league as thrillers like Se7en and The Sixth Sense (predictable as it was), this is still far better than its straight to video release here (although it did receive a limited theatrical release here in Region 4 in November, 2003) might indicate. The performances are quite good with Visnjic and Henderson doing a great job with the balance of fear and attraction in their character's relationships. Miranda Otto is good, although she seems wasted here as the character she plays is easily within her grasp as an actor and not as challenging as you might hope. She does a good job, but she really doesn't have to try here and the role of a transposed American housewife could have easily been played by an American actor. Perhaps she needed the practice, but it isn't even a stretch. The direction of Nick Willing is good and provides all the required (and expected) scares and frights that we always want to see in these films. They might be quite formulaic and by the book, but they work a treat and if you aren't too careful, you'll find yourself jumping out of your skin from time to time.

    If you are after a bit of a fun thriller and a fright on a cold and dark winter's night, then this might fit the bill. Don't demand too much from it and it'll do the job. A bit of simple fun, and not for the squeamish, either.

Video

    This feature is presented in the quite wide aspect ratio of 2.40:1 with the appropriate 16x9 enhancement. In watching some of the trailers available, I get the impression that this film was filmed in a full frame format of some sort, either Super 35 mm or the Spherical 35 mm format, although I'd doubt it would be the latter as this is frequently used on films intended for the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. While watching it on a 76 cm widescreen television, I really didn't notice the narrowness of the image, but after watching it again on a 68 cm 4x3 television, it's truly dramatic as to how much a 2.40:1 presentation is a small strip in the middle of a sea of black. If you hate 'Those annoying black bars' on your television, and you have a 4x3 television, then you'll really hate this.

    The image here for the most part is quite clear and I had no real issues with overall clarity. There is a real presence of grain here, but not to an extent that it hampers clarity and it isn't a huge problem. There are quite a few darker scenes in this film and a decent level of shadow detail wouldn't go astray. Thankfully, we get a competent level of shadow detail here and we see what we are meant to see during the presentation. I had no problems with low level noise.

    Colour's use during this film is quite natural, although it is a bit cold and harsh in palette (which might accurately depict the London cityscape). Colour's transfer to DVD here seems quite good and accurate in terms of what the filmmakers intended.

    This film is transferred at an average bitrate of 5.72 Mb/s, which is reasonable enough to provide a clear image largely free of MPEG nasties. The print used for this transfer is quite clean and only the occasional nick and fleck is evident. Apart from the noticeable grain (slight), there is little to fault this transfer. Edge enhancement didn't seem to be a problem and aliasing seemed to be kept at bay for the most part.

    This disc features no subtitles of any sort.

    This disc is formatted RSDL with the layer change located at 98:58 between Chapters 12 and 13. It is an appropriate place for the change and not disruptive at all.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are 2 audio options with this programme, both in English. We have the choice of either Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 Kb/s or 2.0 at 224 Kb/s. I listened to the 5.1 mix.

    I found the dialogue quality to be fairly good, but because of the sometimes heavy accents heard during the programme, I at times wished to go to the subtitle stream to see exactly what was said. Since there is no subtitle stream with this title, I had to forget this and just attempt to listen harder. That said, I had no real problems with dialogue clarity and for the most part the spoken word is understandable. I also found audio sync to be quite good.

    Music for this feature come from U.K. film composer Simon Boswell. Simon would be known for his scores of films such as the cult classic Hardware, Young Soul Rebels, Shallow Grave and Perdita Durango. The music here completely suits the material and is mysterious and creepy when required.

    Although presented with a 5.1 soundtrack, the rear effects here for the most part are of an atmospheric style and not gimmicky.

    There is some level of LFE here, noticeable at 26:24 with the train. Otherwise the subwoofer dutifully backs up the front main channels.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer - Slash   -   2:34

    Trailer for the 2002 horror / slasher film directed by Neal Sundstrom. Presented full frame with audio in English Dolby Digital 2.0.

Theatrical Trailer - Sol Goode  -   2:23

    Trailer for the 2001 sex comedy staring Balthazar Getty, Tori Spelling, Robert Wagner and Carmen Electra. Presented full frame with audio in English Dolby Digital 2.0.

    After these distractions, we are taken to the disc's Main Menu which offers us the following:

• Play Movie
• Scene Selections (Chapter images (static), numbers and titles)
• Audio Options (English Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1)
• Special Features

• Extended Trailer
• Theatrical Trailer
• Interviews

    This is an overkill of a trailer that goes on and on and gives away way too much of the story. I get the impression that this trailer was created to show people in the entertainment review industry so they could talk about the film without having to watch the thing. This, along with the interviews, seem to have been made for media promotion and not necessarily for extras on a DVD. I'd steer clear of this until you've seen the film. Presented in 2.35:1 without 16x9 enhancement. Audio is in Dolby Digital 2.0

Theatrical Trailer   -   2:03

    This is your normal trailer and one that has featured on the internet fairly prominently over the last few months due to its impending U.S. theatrical release (April, 2004). It sets up the film well without giving away too much. Presented in 1.85:1 with 16x9 enhancement. Audio is in Dolby Digital 2.0.

Interviews   -   Total Running Time - 21:07

    These are a series of interview snippets, and seem more suited for short grabs or soundbites (they are titled as such on this disc) to be used on an entertainment show such as Entertainment Tonight. We don't get the full interviews here and the majority of these run less than one minute. They provide a limited insight into the production of the film and seem to be more for the promotion of the movie than anything else. Still, we have some input from the major players in the film, both in front as well as behind the camera. These are presented full frame with audio in Dolby Digital 2.0.

Goran Visnjic: as Michael Strother   -   2:43

• 1. introducing his character - :15
• 2. on the history of his character - :30
• 3. on the director Nick Willing - :09
• 4. TV versus film acting - :45
• 5. on ER - :22

• 1. intro to character and the story - :38
• 2. on her character D.I. Losey - :23
• 3. on the film's mood - :10
• 4. on the script - :20
• 5. on the character Michael Strother - :10
• 6. on working with Goran Visnjic - :20
• 7. on director Nick Willing - :10
• 8. on the visual nature of the film - :24

• 1. describing the film's genre - :10
• 2. on her character - :40
• 3. on playing a wife and mother - :31
• 4. on the children in the film - :32
• 5. on how the audience will react - :16

• 1. on his character Elliot - :49
• 2. on preparing for the role - :30
• 3. on the film's originality - :12
• 4. on the challenge of the film - :30
• 5. on Goran Visnjic - :10

• 1. on the story - :38
• 2. on the link to 16th Century Alchemy - :23
• 3. on the fantasy world of the film - :30
• 4. on history of the film - :43
• 5. on the nature of possession - :20
• 6. on the visual nature of the film - :20
• 7. on creating the psychological felling of the characters - :18
• 8. on using the Fraser camera lens - :26

• 1. on the story - :39
• 2. on getting the script ready to film - :20
• 3. on casting Goran Visnjic - :51
• 4. on casting Shirley Henderson - :20
• 5. on making a British thriller - :28
• 6. on cinematic references - :22
• 7. on the audience's reaction - :10

     This film has only just been released in Region 1 theatrically (as of April 23, 2004), so we won't see a DVD from that region for at least several months. At this time, the only other release has been in Region 2 with a version made available in the Netherlands.

     In comparison to the Dutch disc, the Region 4 version misses out on:

• English dts audio track
• Behind the Scenes featurette (approx. 9 minutes duration)
• Bonus trailers for Swimfan, Secretary and About Schmidt
• Dutch subtitles

     The Region 2 version misses out on:

• English Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track

     Whist not the most original thing that I've ever seen, this is still an interesting thriller with a few frights thrown in for the bargain. We've seen this type of film from the U.S. a million times, but it's always interesting to see this type of thing done by the British, who seem to take things from a slightly different angle. If a fun fright on a cold winter's night is your desire, then this'll be right up your alley.

     The video is quite good.

     The audio is good.

     There are a couple of simple extras that seem intended for broadcast rather than as extras on a DVD.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall