With a view to paying tribute to one of his great heroes in the figure of Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Rodriguez returns to the genre of thriller with Hypnosis: Invisible Weapon. A passion project that took the Texan filmmaker more than two decades to bring to the big screen, and that is mixed with science fiction elements that promise to keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.
What is it about Hypnosis: Invisible Weapon?
Detective Daniel Rourke (Ben Affleck) becomes embroiled in a case involving the mysterious disappearance of his daughter and a secret government program. With the help of Diane Cruz (Alice Braga), a gifted psychic, he will learn about the concept of “hypnotic”, which means that everything you hear or see that seems perfectly normal may not be. Rourke must challenge his own mind and investigate a series of high-level heists. This challenge will not only test his psyche but will also make him fight to find the only man who holds the key to finding his daughter.
He also responsible for films like From Twilight to dawn (nineteen ninety six), Sin City: Sin City (2005) or Battle Angel: The Last Warrior (2019) first conceived the premise of Hypnosis: Invisible Weapon in 2002. One of his favorite stories he’s ever created, but only now was he able to bring it to fruition.
“I’ve never had an idea that’s been out of production for so long. But I’m glad I stuck with it, because making it was very satisfying in many ways. And in a strange way, it seems like this was the perfect time to do it. I wouldn’t have had all the answers I needed even five years ago, nor the cast I have,” Rodriguez commented in an interview with GamesRadar. “It was an idea that always caught me because I thought it reminded me a lot of what we do. The more I made films, the more it reminded me of what we do as storytellers: we create. Our job is to create a hypnotic construction for an audience that pays money to see that construction (…) So I thought, I want that to be in the film, very meta, like when you start to see the layers revealing that you don’t know what is real, what is not, what is a construction and what is not. And that is happening in the cinema, and it is also happening to you within the film.”
Production and cast team
Robert Rodriguez, is leading this ambitious project with a budget of $65 million dollars. He also co-wrote the script with Max Borenstein (Godzilla Vs. kong). In addition, he was in charge of photography, editing and being one of the producers, in association with Mark Gil and his son Racer Rodriguez. Another of his offspring, Rebel Rodriguez (Mini Spies: Armageddon), composed the music.
The filmmaker summarizes the appeal of Hypnosis: Invisible Weapon In a powerful sentence: “It’s Hitchcock on steroids.” This was explained in an interview with Collider last May:
“By that I mean the rhythm. The movies of [Alfred] Hitchcock were older films and I thought I’d love to give them the relentless pace of a thriller. “I thought it would be very fun,” he commented. “As we were editing it I was thinking, ‘I just want this to take you to where you don’t really realize how fast this movie is.’”
You might also be interested in: For this reason Ben Affleck no longer wants to direct a James Gunn DCU film.
But Hypnosis It not only stands out for the name of its director, but also for its great cast. The film stars Ben Affleck (Air: The story behind the logo) as Detective Danny Rourke. They accompany you: Alice Braga (I’m legend), William Fichtner (The Lone Ranger), JD Pardo ( The Twilight Saga Dawn Part 2), Dayo Okeniyi (The Hunger Games) and Jeff Fahey (lost).
Regarding the choice of Ben Affleck, Rodriguez said the following to GamesRadar:
“He is a star. That’s what I loved about Hitchcock’s movies. Hitchcock could make movies with non-stars, but when he did it best it was with Cary Grant and James Stewart. So, I thought, ‘I need a star like that to really sustain the movie.’ And then the fact that he’s actually a father and he’s always talking about his kids too—we talked about our kids all the time—and I knew that his genuine warmth as a father was the other side of that driven detective, so he was perfect. And he is from the independent cinema of the 90s. So, when our schedule was tied, I knew he would be able to do it.
Unfortunately, the bet has not paid the desired dividends with a collection of just $4.5 million in the US. In terms of reception, the general audience has rated it positively at 62% on Rotten Tomatoes, well above the 33 % of specialized criticism.
When it premieres Hypnosis: Invisible Weapon?
The film directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Ben Affleck arrives on October 26, 2023 to the cinemas of Mexico.