Red Flag Theatre

 

Hey, hey, Horror Nuts!  Welcome to another edition of WTFHM!

Hey, there.  This one goes out to the ladies.

You ever go through a really hard time and your friend says see my therapist only to find that therapist is doing and saying wildly inappropriate things very, very early in your relationship?

Or have you ever blown right by all the red flags in any type of relationship and then find yourself like:

Yeah? Well, then. You're going to love This Week's Movie!

Hypnotic starring Kate Siegel, Jason O'Mara, Dule Hill, Lucie Guest, Jaime Callica, and Tanja Dixon-Warren.

So...*heavy sigh*

Okay. So. This movie...(pained groan).  Lemme just start with a summary.

This is Jenn(Siegel). She's got issues.  While at a friend's party, her friend introduces her to her creepy psychotherapist and yes, you read that right. Her friend had a party and invited her therapist, Dr. Collin Meade (O'Mara)...and he showed up.

A therapist who looks like the spawn of Malfoy's dad a member of the Hitler Youth.  This dude:

Surprising no one, the therapist hypnotizes her and makes her do bad things. What happens next is a maze of hypnotic suggestions and mind control words. 

And I...ugh.  

Okay, so first thing's first.  Very, very, VERY few movies I have ever seen have been able to do the whole "hypnosis is evil" myth right. The truth of the matter is that most of the time, thrillers involving hypnosis usually require a whole truck full of manure to pull it off in a halfway reasonable sense. That is to say, going in, you need to disregard a few facts if you're going to enjoy a hypnosis movie.

So, listen up:



In real life:

 
1. No one can make you do anything under hypnosis that you wouldn't normally do.

2. In order for a hypnotist to implant an intricate "Manchurian Candidate" style web of suggestions to your brain, you'd have to undergo years of brainwashing. (And maybe not even then)

3.  Not everyone can be hypnotized. In fact, there are plenty of people it just doesn't work for (yours truly is one of them).

Okay, so those are real-life rules and don't apply to anything that ever happens in fiction (even in the best movies). That's cool. Not gonna rag on that. No issues there.

What I do have an issue with is apparently the protag couldn't see a red flag if it was a thousand feet tall and five thousand feet wide.

Here are a few that our protag just blows right past:

1. Jenn meets Dr. Meade at a party 🚩🚩

As I mentioned, her friend has a party and invites her therapist. I don't know all the rules of engagement for therapists and their patients, but I'm pretty sure going to a patient's party is pretty inappropriate. As a woman, my first thought would be "Wait...your therapist is here? Why...is he here?"

2. Dr. Meade suggests hypnosis on her first visit 🚩🚩🚩

So, Jen doesn't know that Dr. Meade is a hypnotist when she goes to see him. He suggests it and she's all "Okay!"

Bro...I'm not letting anyone put me in a vulnerable position on the first visit. It's super weird for a therapist to even suggest it.

3. He has a straight-up Ted Bundy vibe. 🚩🚩🚩🚩

I mean, LOOK AT HIM.

And here's famed serial killer of women, Ted Bundy

Somebody tell me how is Dr. Meade not giving Bundy??  Women have been hardcoded to avoid dudes that look like this at least since 1978.

4. She. Has. DINNER. WITH. HIM. 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

Yeah, okay, so, Jen is having issues with her ex. She calls Dr. Meade, Dr. Meade invites her out to dinner. She says yes and it's at that point, I'm like;

You don't go to dinner with your therapist. Let me repeat that. YOU DO NOT GO TO DINNER WITH YOUR THERAPIST.

The hell. Your therapist is not your homeboy. You don't hang out with him. Who even does that? 

And it's around this time that bad things start to happen and suddenly Jen is all, "OMG, what do I do? Why is this happening?"  The whole thing is giving me the same energy as this:

And look, the villain is still a predatory, manipulative dude that we can all agree is decidedly evil, but I need to know why the writers of this movie thought it would be cool to make the protag so unbelievably oblivious to very, very, very, VERY obvious signs that he is a bad, bad guy. A small child who has just learned not to talk to strangers had more sense than the Jen character.

OMG, I hated this movie. No stars. No thumbs up. Big, slow motion raspberry.

You suck writers. Next time talk to a woman before you write about one.

Ahem.  Next week's movie!  Saint Maud because I'm kind of in the mood for a little religious horror.

See you next week!

O~
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