Hypnotic, the new Netflix thriller from directors Suzanne Coote and Matt Angel (The Open House), has arrived to scare the streaming service subscribers into a trance right before Halloween hits. Starring Midnight Mass’ Kate Siegel, Hypnotic centers on Jenn, a woman struggling after a miscarriage and who decides to seek professional help in the form of therapist Dr. Collin Meade (Jason O’Mara). Dr. Meade uses hypnosis on his patients to help them overcome their worst fears and Jenn decides to go under to determine how best to move on from her trauma and how to proceed in her relationship with her ex-fiancé. After Jenn’s first hypnosis session, she blacks out in a grocery store parking lot. This occurred after she received a phone call from what sounds like Dr. Meade. When she comes to, she finds herself in her home with her ex-fiancé Brian (Jaime M. Callica) in anaphylactic shock. It appears he’s been fed sesame oil, which he is highly allergic toward. Jenn is aware of his allergy and has no memory of cooking the meal or anything after she received the call in the parking lot. She quickly determines that there must be some connection to the hypnosis, and after she brings her suspicions to Det. Wade Rollins (Dulé Hill), she discovers that Dr. Meade has a history of using “hypnotic suggestion” on his patients to deadly effect. The ending of Hypnotic finds Jenn and Rollins discovering that Dr. Meade is actually named Julian Sullivan. Julian is the son of Dr. Xavier Sullivan, a man involved in the CIA’s MKUltra project during the 1960s and who taught his son Julian about hypnosis and hypnotic suggestion. Julian uses hypnosis on women who resemble his deceased wife Amy, placing them under hypnosis to act out his fondest memories of Amy. Jenn is the latest ringer for Amy, and Jenn’s “dreams” of romantic situations with Dr. Meade are implanted memories or actions acted out while Jenn was under hypnosis.
