The deeper the sleep. The darker the fear.<BR>&nbsp;

The deeper the sleep. The darker the fear.

Hypnotherapist Michael Strother, Goran Visnjic, has brought his pregnant wife, Miranda Otto, and young daughter to London from America to try to get away from the guilt he feels about the death of one of his patients. He sets up as a therapist for smokers. While treating policewoman Janet Losey, Shirley Henderson, he sees the floating body of a young girl in her trance. Losey insists he becomes involved with the case she's working on, to elicit a response from a young girl, Heather, Sophie Stuckey, who's recently escaped from a serial killer of young girls who leaves tattoos on their bodies. Heather's trauma from the experience has left her silent and out of reach of those close to her. As Michael and Losey slowly learn more they discover they are dealing with the dark world of the occult.Hypnotic is inspired by Madison Smartt Bell's novel and it's a good and creepy story. And while director Nick Willing's screenplay, which he wrote with William Broomfield is fine, somehow his work directing the film falls a bit flat. He's unable to elicit exciting performances from his cast, Miranda Otto has a totally thankless role and Shirley Henderson is actually not very convincing at all - and some choices of shots and edits jar. But the story is so intriguing and gruesome that I found myself quite enjoying Hypnotic despite its flaws.