REVIEW: EUGENIO MARTIN’S HYPNOSIS

By Elena Anele (*)

Eugenio Martin (HORROR EXPRESS) directed HYPNOSIS in 1962. One of first Spanish- German co-productions in our cinema written by Gabriel Moreno Burgos (Nadie oyó gritar) and Eugenio himself on the Spanish team, Francis Niewal and Gerhard Schmidt (CEO of the former Cologne Gemini Group) from the German side and Giuseppe Mangione.

The movie, a mixture of  Krimi,  German expressionist, pre- Tales from Crypt and American noir starts with the murder of a hypnotist in his dressing room. He is Georg, whose fiancée, Magda, is secretly in love with his assistant.  There is an only witness of the crime, but soon he is considered to be responsible of the tragedy. After that, while the police are chasing this man another killing takes place and the possibility of dealing with a non-human criminal is suspected. Who is behind this? Are we facing supernatural forces? Is this evil? Clue: look at the picture bellow:

This is a first work by the great Spanish cinema director who had made some experimental shorts previously with some international success. Little traces of what he would become later can be observed in this movie but it is true that is a very interesting piece full of quality and well-made scenes and shots.

Most actors are German but there are a few from Spain and Italy as well, so compulsory dubbing is understood in the edition of the movie. This is the only drawback as, at least in Spanish, the soundtrack is kind of tacky. In the cast there are some familiar faces for cult cinema lovers as Jean Sorel (Belle de Jour, Una Historia Perversa) or José María Caffarel (Supersonic Man) among others.

Once again Mr. Martin shows he knew perfectly well the statements of every genre since the very beginning of his career. A feature to enjoy and love…

It may be hard to find in good quality, but at least in Spain can be found on a VOD platform.

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Elena Anele is the woman in charge of SPANISHFEAR.COM, Horror Rises from Spain  and Un Fan de Paul Naschy . A literature and cinema researcher, finishing her postgraduate studies with a thesis about the mystic filmmaker José Val del Omar. She has published in different media and books as Fangoria or Hidden Horror. She has also been in charge of several translations including Javier Trujillo’s complete works, La Mano Film Fest, The Man who Saw Frankenstein Cry and many more.