The Hypnosis (2021)
The Hypnosis is a South Korean horror movie that came out in 2021 in the language of Korean.
How I watched: Tubi
For the short of it: This movie is about a college guy who undergoes hypnosis for thr LOLs but him and his friends get plagued with frightening visions.
The long of it:
As you know, Tubi itself is such a great source of legit free and foreign movies of all genres might as well throw in tv shows for extra credit. They do go through a lot of titles frequently so that means many expire so that new ones can come in. They usually cycle back to Tubi so that the cycle may repeat itself. My point in saying this is that I only chose to pick The Hypnosis as my next viewing is solely on the fact that it was due to be leaving Tubi in 3-ish days. Some titles come back way sooner than others and I decided I did not want to take that chance with this one and went out ahead and tuned in.
The Hypnosis centers around a group of friends in college, the main character being Do Hyun whom his professor quickly introduces him to Jin Ho asking to make him feel welcome...or something. Pretty much just forcing them to be BFFs. Do Hyun is a nice guy and Jin Ho is also a nice guy. So they have a nice guy chit chat.
What pops up in passing conversation is that Jin Ho is actively receiving hypnosis sessions from another professor at the same campus to help him deal his some recent trauma. New BFF tags along to break his hypnosis cherry.
This is totally not the fun kind of hypnosis either because my man Do Hyun gets these terrifying visions. Like the most mortifying and nightmare inducing shit you could possibly think of. So what does he do? He recruits his gal pal, Hyun Jun to do it too.
A side story with this friend is that she is an actress for this tv drama which just so happens to be about past lives so there's another connection to that. She is the only girl in the group too which explains why because in her dance class, the other girls are your basic catty girls who do their gossip girl thing and collectively give her the cold shoulder. She also once dated one of the guys in her guy friend group, not Do Hyun actually but Byun Jun. So things are a tad awkward.
Enough about that, let's get to the spooky shit.
Okay well since you asked nicely. Just as quickly when it started, this entire group of friends are starting to suffer from IRL hallucinations and it all just gets progressively worse and worse by the second. So like, what is up with that, man? Why? What? How? and most importantly, WHY?!
If you were to ask me, I think this is a great gateway movie to get into asian horror movies. There's less scarier but at the same time there's MORE scarier asian flicks than this. I figure this has a cute snuggly spot somewhere in the middle. I'd even say this is even a tolerable pick for a movie night with your closest BFFs or even with the fam.
One thing I am not quite sure if I like is the gracious use of characters dropping the "r" word a few times throughout this movie. I'm hoping it is due to mistranslation but yeah that kind of stuff may have flied back in the 80s but this movie being in the 2020s, it is totally not socially acceptable to be dropping such an offensive word so casually. Again, hoping it is just from mixed translations.
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and even the plot. If you have watched enough mystery type of stuff, I am sure you could use your big brain and bet what happens. However, I do not own such big brain so I was quite impressed with the grand reveal at the ending. While it was revealed right away there are hints of it in the beginning of the movie. Like, more and more until it can no longer be a hint and it becomes obvious why shit gets crackin'.
I did read up on some criticisms after I got done viewing this movie and it actually does have some harsh ratings and one scathing user review on IMDB but I will stand behind my glowing review and say I think this movie is mostly okay and I could see myself rewatching this movie in the future. I almost prefer you DO watch it a second time because it makes the beginning of the movie makes SO MUCH more sense in the grand scheme of things as there are various foreshadowing and hints you may have missed. Don't let the horror snobs get your goat because there is evidently a lot of them. Don't be ashamed to like it if you do because I sure as fuck am not. This the bees knees over here.
Should you decide to watch the movie, there is an IRL mystery surrounding this song played throughout the movie and in the credits. Literally the same dilemma I had with my Alison's Birthday post concerning tracking down a song that seemingly doesn't have an official release. After a failed reading from my Shazam app to recognize it, I sought out 'ol Google. You would think they have all the answers. NOPE but at least I'm not the only one. There is even this Reddit post asking the same thing. If anyone knows Korean, maybe they could see if it is in the credits?
With that being said, what is my verdict?
If you are interested in watching The Hypnosis then please CLICK HERE to see which streaming services you can watch it on via the free streaming guide app JUSTWATCH!
