Review of Regression (2015) by Collin C — 04 Jun 2016

A movie ruined by the first 5 seconds when it says it is based on real events. Ethan Hawke is a detective investigating a sexual abuse case. What they end up finding is admit the nationwide craze of satanic cults, there is one right under their nose wrecking havoc to the rest of the town. This is an amazing set up, too bad it is grounded in reality so there is really only one ending and it will disappoint the vast majority of people out there as shown by the reviews and reaction to this film. Not sure what people expected. Don't get me wrong, it was disappointing too, but I knew what to expect just from the opening credits.

With that said, this had a lot more potential. The use of surrounds to mimmic voices in your head the the overall uneasiness is unlike any other film in recent memory. The soundtrack alone is 5 stars if you have a 5.1 surround sound hookup (I assume most don't). Hawke and Watson are pretty solid. The direction is great and it always feel creepy. The problem is they decided to keep this grounded in realism so you know it's going to be nothing but smoke and mirrors.

Maybe that is the point, we want to believe something so out there and fantastical, we forget to realize something the simplest and most basic explanation is the one that is indeed true.