'Regression': Evil Lurks In All Shapes

Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar delves back into his familiar genre fare with “Regression,” a North American-produced thriller starring Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson.
Just watching the trailer alone, one immediately gets excited and remembers Amenábar's earlier days when he directed such memorable and game-changing films like “Thesis,” “Open Your Eyes” and especially “The Others” and hopes “Regression” will create the same effect. Sadly, the film seems outdated as opposed to its retro ambitions of capturing the mood of earlier films like “Se7en” or “Silence of The Lambs.” Nevertheless, the director is still a great craftsman when it comes to the specifics of the thriller genre.
The story takes place in the early '90s in a backwater town of Minnesota overtaken by rainy weather and dark clouds. The initial text of the film gives us information that America was in the clutch of paranoia and fear caused by the possibility of satanic rituals taking place throughout the country. This wave of paranoia was never fully substantiated despite the mass hysteria.
Bruce Kenner (Hawke putting on a husky voice evocative of Christian Bale's Batman) is the smarter-than-all lone wolf detective assigned to solve a mysterious case of child abuse that could be an important piece of the puzzle of a larger crime involving satanic worship. Seventeen-year-old Angela Gray (Watson) has written a letter to the local evangelical church claiming she's being abused by her father, John Gray (Don Dencik), a devout Christian with a drinking problem.
Gray is questioned by Kenner, and though the man doesn't remember ever laying a hand on his daughter he confesses he must have done it since his Angela would never lie. Kenner immediately feels something is wrong and brings in a psychologist (David Thewlis) to deploy regression therapy -- a kind of hypnotic therapy that helps patients recall events they can't remember. But the question is immediately planted in our heads -- is regression therapy completely reliable in recalling reality or does it have its shortcomings? Living in the 21st century, you might already know the answer to this.
The father's hypnosis session brings about new clues that Angela's alleged abuse was perpetrated by a group of people who might be a part of a satanic cult. Turns out the FBI have been investigating such cases for the past seven years with no real conclusion, but Bruce is adamant and feels there are some sinister evildoers in town. At this point Amenábar continually throws in our face scenes in which Bruce might be followed and some very disturbing dream/memory sequences shared by all characters and an eerie barn door that looks like the entrance into the seventh corridor of hell in order to raise the stakes. Are there really cloaked townspeople who kill babies and worship the devil, or is there something else going on?
Amenábar keeps us on the edge of suspense until the end of the second act, and thanks to the balanced but intense performances of Hawke and Watson we are still surprised by all the generic plot turns that lead into a rather anticlimactic end full of didacticism and expository dialogue. For some odd reason, the filmmakers feel the need to explain everything that happened throughout the film in the final 10 minutes, probably fearing that some audiences won't be able to catch on to the theme and purpose of the story. It's a huge buzzkill, especially from a virtuoso like Amenábar, who long ago proved his philosophical and technical capacities with “The Others,” a film that organically merged the themes of loss and mourning into a meaningful and emotional journey with the use of the supernatural.
“Regression” is regressive filmmaking, despite the stellar performances and flawless cinematography that almost succeed in creating the same stomach churn and helplessness that “The Exorcist” had created. Sure, Amenábar proves his point that we don't need the presence of Satan when the natural evil and dogmatism inherent in some people are horrifying in and of themselves, but he refrains from diving into more meaty territory when it comes to portraying the effects of mass hysteria and groupthink. Nevertheless, fans of the genre are in for a stylish film, if not a classic.

EMİNE YILDIRIM / ISTANBUL (Cihan/Today's Zaman)