A dark night, the police receives a mysterious message. A dead woman is found and next to her lays a girl in shock. Beatriz is a famous doctor that starts to work in a mental hospital specialized in hypnosis. While she studies the case of the girl, the little commits suicide, which will cause Beatriz to enter into a world where it is difficult to distinguish between reality and dream. The plot is interesting and at the beginning, the movie is quite catching, but, as the movie develops, it becomes clear that it has anything worthy. It becomes not terrifying nor thrilling, just weird and boring. As an opera prima it is, it's clear to realize that many scenes could be better filmed and the plot is maybe too complex for a newbie. Perhaps with more experience and clearer ideas, the movie could be better. The acting does not helps, too. As at any moment the actors feel comfortable in their papers, perhaps is the inexperienced director that makes this, as he is not able to transmit everything he wants to transmit. the directing its promising, but the experience makes the grade, perhaps in the future, he will make a good film. Let's wait for it.

Hipnos starts as a young attractive psychiatrist named Beatriz (Cristina Brondo) arrives at a Spanish clinic for people with metal problems where she is about to start her new job, Elena (Marisol Membrillo) show her around where she meets a troubled young girl & she then gets to meet her boss Dr. Sanchez Blanche (Feodor Atkine) who seems decent enough. At first things at the clinic seem fine but when the girl Beatriz befriended commits suicide & another patient named Miguel (Demian Bichir) claims it wasn't suicide & something very sinister is going on she gets drawn into a web of lies, sex, murder & intrigue... or does she...This Spanish production was co-written & directed by David Carreras & I thought it was absolutely bloody terrible. The script by Carreras & Juanma Ruiz Cordoba was based on a novel by Javier Azpeitia & is a slow moving psychological horror/thriller that didn't do anything for me. Now we all know how effective a great unexpected twist ending can be, I mean just look at the likes of The Sixth Sense (1999) & Fight Club (1999) to name just two films that I'm sure most people will have at least heard of if not seen, it's the careful build up & then the fantastic twist ending which make those films, right? Well if The Sixth Sense & Fight Club are the blue-prints for doing the twist ending properly this piece of crap Hipnos must surely be the perfect way to demonstrate how not to do it properly. For a start I saw the twist at the end coming within the first twenty minutes, seriously this is pretty clichéd, predictable, unoriginal & has been done before on more than one occasion, sure I didn't predict every last point & every single thing that happened but in essence I guessed who everyone were & how it was going to turn out. Then there's the small fact the ending completely destroys everything which has gone beforehand, not matter how hard I try to square the circle I just cannot & put into context with the previous 70 odd minutes the ending makes no logical sense, it annoys & isn't shocking, particularly memorable or clever & in fact it's anything but shocking, memorable or clever. Then there's the fact it's slow, there are scenes which go nowhere & I'd rather watch grass grow than watch Hipnos again, at least watching grass grow isn't as predictable or boring.Director Carreras does a fantastic job on Hipnos, while I hated the story & film in general it looks absolutely brilliant throughout. There are some wonderful scenes beautifully shot & composed so you have to try & watch this the way it was shot in 2:35:1 widescreen, the production design is amazing with the ultra modern interior & exterior of the clinic wonderfully realised, it's very minimalist with chrome & stainless steel & sleek lines everywhere, this looks the absolute business no mistake & it's a shame all the style & visual flair ended up with a script that was so bad. To try & distract you from the awful story the filmmakers made leading lady Brondo strip off on a regular basis to have a shower or bath so they can show her body & breasts off but it doesn't improve things.Technically Hipnos is absolutely flawless & is maybe the best most stylish & visually interesting film I've seen this year, if only all films looked this good I'd be a happy guy. Seriously you have to see this to appreciate it, unfortunately sitting through it isn't that much fun. The acting is strong by all involved but I never really cared for anyone to any great degree maybe because it's in Spanish & I couldn't understand what they were saying & that in itself felt like a barrier. The version I watched had English subtitles, I don't know who wrote them but they need to work on their English grammar...Hipnos is a rubbishy thriller that tries to be clever, I hated the story but loved the stunning visuals & for me the story is just more important which is why I'm giving it 2 stars out of 10. If you do want to watch this make sure you pick up a copy in widescreen!

Well, an Spanish thriller that doesn't make you blush... that's a good beginning. As for the movie itself it is such of a dissection of madness, with an structure similar to David Lynch's universe but without the intensity and the fascination of the Canadian director.A young woman (a doctor) comes to a psychiatric institution to fill a vacant. Soon some strange events will begin to happen and she'll begin to feel that something is wrong over there.The aesthetic of the film is so white and aseptic (it reminded me of movies such as THX), mixing old buildings with ultra-modern technologies and decorations.It is not the movie of the year but you may spend a nice time watching it (specially main character's great body -an unknown Spanish actress, maybe a debutant-).*My rate: 6/10

********************************************************************* Although the movie is a little bit confusing at times, don't worry. In the end everything comes together. I'm really impressed with this thriller and I really would like to recommend it. The plot is ingenious and well crafted. What took me by shock was the fact that this one isn't an American movie (almost all movies I get are American and the Title is a little bit suggesting - Hipnos). I realized it on the first scenes (good way to practice my Spanish).**************************** ********************************************************************* ********************************************************************* *********************************************************************