This one was a nice surprise! I really appreciate little films like these. A very tight Spannish psychological thriller, very stylish and well thought out (both story-wise and technically, with great shots and angles). A young woman (doctor) gets accepted to go and work in a mental institute. Things are not quite what they seem in there, and it doesn't take long before patients start to die. The first half of the movie indeed moves rather slow. And after that, things get really weird (the films of David Lynch come to mind). But in the end you get a plausible explanation, so the movie itself never derails. When you look at it afterwards, then you might figure out the explanation in the end yourself. But "Hipnos" does a very good job to keep the truth hidden until the final scenes. I say this one is certainly worth seeing. And yes, I'm generous in my rating, but there's just too many real crappy films on DVD out there. This one's absolutely not one of those.

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!

Spain, along with a handful of Asian countries, is like the new Promised Land for horror & thriller cinema, with a couple of multi-talented young directors that are active at the moment, like Jaume Balaguéro, Louis de la Madrid and – of course Alex de la Iglesia. I wish I could add David Carreras' name to this eminent list, but "Hipnos" is so far his only long-feature film achievement and… it really isn't that impressive. Carreras knows how to create a tense atmosphere and he can surely lead his cast members in the right direction, but the script – albeit very ambitious – simply lacks power and genuine thrills. I'm pretty sure that the large share of fans this movie has will just claim that I wasn't able to 'understand' the convoluted structure, but the truth is the events simply aren't fascinating enough. The story opens with the discovery of a young girl covered in blood standing over her mother's dead body. She's in a severe state of shock and doctors as well as police officers decide it's better to send her to Dr. Sanchéz Blanch's proclaimed sanatorium. He uses unique and supposedly advanced hypnosis to bring back the memories of amnesia patients, but the new female doctor Beatriz is about to discover that these techniques are endangers the patients rather then cures them. The first half of the film is rather compelling, since you constantly try to figure out what exactly is the connection between Beatriz and the mysterious institution. The main twist can be guessed rather easily, but Carreras ingeniously adds a lot of detailed sub plots and intrigue. Alas, near the second half of the film the red herrings become less and less effective and can no longer be bothered to predict Beatriz' complex fate. The dialogs suddenly get very tedious and the lack of spectacle doesn't really help, neither. Our young Spanish director was obviously influenced by the works of David Lynch, but still lacks his talent of maintaining the suspense and curiosity from start to finish. From a more technical point of view, "Hipnos" is a rather successful effort, with sublimely cool camera-work and fast-paced editing. Cristina Brondo is a devoted young actress and not exactly prudish, as she please the male viewers with several full frontal nudity scenes. Although no gem or a soon-to-be cult classic, "Hipnos" is worth a look and David Carreras is certainly a name to remember for the future of Spanish cinema.

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