Hold on hold on before you continue reading, there are a couple of things you need to know
There is a Hypnotic on Netflix that released back in 2021 that I also did a review on
This is a review on the latest film released in 2023, also titled Hypnotic
Both same title but different stuff
Why can’t they think of another title?~
The 2nd thing you need to know before continuing to read is that it will be a bit of spoiler on the movie
So if you intend to watch the movie and don’t want spoilers, don’t read on
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Ok if you are still here, I assume you are ok with spoilers or you already watched the movie
Don’t regret ah!
Hahahaha
Since the title is Hypnotic, obviously I watched it to check it out, see see if it is accurate to hypnosis and all~
But of course, as expected, the hypnotist is usually the villain in movies~
Sadly…
However, this is slightly different
While Hypnotic did share some information which is accurate for the unconscious mind
It isn’t actually about hypnosis?!
Like, the movie is Hypnotic but it isn’t about hypnosis
Nooooo!!!
I very sad T_T
The movie describes some people they called hypnotics
Such hypnotics can manipulate the mind, to make you see what they want you to see, and pretty much do what they want you to do
Which is a form of mind control, and yes… plays to the villain hypnotist archetype
BUT!!!
Actual hypnosis can’t do that
I cannot hypnotize you against your will, to make you see or do what I want
Heck if I can do that, I’ll be married or make myself the President of Singapore or something
The other thing is, hypnosis occurs with instructions
Essentially, you have to be able to hear my voice, or perhaps read some text I am typing
Don’t worry, you can resist hypnosis
If I were to wiggle my fingers and say, “You need to go to the toilet and pee now”
You won’t
Because you can resist
Unless you want to
Anyway, in this movie, while it did have some verbal instructions, it become more like psychic mind control stuff
Where they use the mind to mind control people without any verbal instructions
So the movie of Hypnotic in 2023 should be named Mind Control or Psychic instead
Eh~~~
Obvious disappointment from me sia~~~
So misleading…
Some of the stuff they include in the movie is correct or accurate
For example, by default we can already form a trigger with something that associates with something else
A clearer example, might be entering a restaurant and smelling a certain food which brings back a memory of your dinner that was cooked by your then partner
Then maybe you might be curious if your partner started the restaurant or something
We call this an anchor
This happens to everyone easily because that is simply how the mind works
Or at least one of its capabilities
If someone had an accident and develop amnesia, getting in contact with a particular sweater, or seeing a particular picture might potentially trigger the memories back
That can happen
We can use this in hypnosis if seeing a particular red shirt might give you a confidence boost
Or we might remove the fear of cats by delinking the fear to the cat
But a lot of the movie is… really more on psychic mind control stuff
If you have the idea or understanding that it is a movie about psychics, I’m sure you can enjoy the movie!
There are a lot of plot twists to the movie
So here are the real spoilers!!
Although I think instead of calling them hypnotics (so misleading), I think I will call them psychics for the rest of the blog
Anyway, as it turns out, pretty much every person in the movie is a psychic
Yup you read that right
This is because they all belong to the same organization which trains such psychics to develop these mind control powers
And what happened is that they had 2 such psychics get married and they had a child together who has immense powers
Like, towards the end of the movie, when Danny Rourke (the main lead) was going to find his daughter, and there were helicopters flying to find him
That same child was on the ground but she had somehow influenced all the people in the helicopters to see the ground according to what she wants
That is just crazy!
Because that might indicate that her range of abilities is several kilometers!!
But that is at the end
If we go back to the beginning, Danny realized that his child is going to be used by the organization to mind control the world and he and his wife doesn’t want that
And because the basis of the psychic is mind control, they can wipe each other clean of their memories and create a new identity, new life, new memories
One plothole here is why not do that to the director of the organization and make him decide to use it for good instead of mind control the world right?
So what did they do instead?
They wipe each other clean of memories after hiding the child away
And made it such that the wife’s new identity is for the organization, while he is against
Hence, she will be the hidden spy or mole or something (but she doesn’t know it until the end)
Now she and the organization trapped Danny and create mental simulations to crack him down
In this new set of memories, he is a detective and his daughter was kidnapped so now he has to find his daughter
But he is a powerful psychic so the moment he spots the cracks in the mental simulation, he can break himself out before they find where his daughter is
Again if you so powerful, why not mind control the boss of the organization instead?
Then on top of that, it has been 4 years since his daughter went missing and the organization still haven’t found her
And they did this mental simulation thing on him 12 times already
Although I’m not sure if it is 12 times in 4 years, or if they dilly dally for 3 years then the last 1 year created this mental simulation thing
Shrug
But you know what, maybe the boss is a super powerful psychic
So Danny can’t do anything
Yet his daughter can at the end
However, the boss manage to reverse mind control the “good guys”
So they think he died but he didn’t
Weird if the daughter is supposed to be the most powerful then how the boss can mind control her back?
If you like all the plot twists along the way then sure it is a decent movie
But if you prefer a good story or plot, then just like me, this movie isn’t for you
