CLOSE YOUR EYES

Close Your Eyes

Starring: Goran Visnjic, Paddy Considine
Director: Nick Willing

Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC

Movie: * * *
Disc: * * ½

This is a solid little British occult thriller.

An American expatriate hypnotist living in London who makes his living curing smokers is called in by the British police to help solve a series of child murders with occult overtones. One of the children (a little girl) has escaped the killer, but has lost the power of speech afterwards. The hypnotist uncovers some clues whilst putting the girl under hypnosis, but soon the killer is on his trail and his family — a heavily pregnant wife and young girl — is in peril too.

But all isn’t as it seems however, and there are some unexpected plot twists and turns. It would seem that there is method to the murderer’s methods . . .

Although some plot aspects of Close Your Eyes remain vague and unexplained and there are some plot holes, the film will take you along for the ride — even when some more implausible supernatural elements are thrown into the mix.

THE DISC: No extras except for some trailers for some cheapo horror movies you probably wouldn’t want to see.

WORTH IT? More understated than any American version of the same story would be, Close Your Eyes is an unexpectedly good film that seemingly came out of nowhere . . .