Hipnos

[sinister]

This is my new favourite film.

Firstly, have to say I just love Argento stuff, Tenebrae + Suspiria are 2 of my top movies... the lighting, direction and atmosphere just makes them stand out above everything else.

Seeing Hipnos is like discovering a long lost Argento movie that he made around 1980, it really is that good. In fact the pace, story and acting hold together better than anything Argento managed to pull off, so for me it's even better than a classic giallo from the master himself.

It's more of a thriller/mystery type movie than pure horror, there's not much blood or violence really, but the atmosphere, lighting, soundtrack and photography are second to none. It's set in a very modern mental hospital, so plenty of opportunity for sets that are both stunningly beautiful and creepy at the same time.

Couple of stills to give you an idea of the kinda look they've achieved:





This is a spanish movie (from 2004), directed by David Carreras, and there's a spanish DVD available with English subs.

My only complaint about the DVD is that the movie is 2.35:1, non-anamorphic, and the sub-titles are outside the 16:9 frame so on my widescreen display they get cut off unless you watch it in 4:3 mode with big borders all around. There's an Italian DVD (which is anamorphic) which claims to have an English dubbed track but I just received a copy of it today and it only has Spanish + Italian tracks, so it seems the sleeve itself (and therefore online info) is wrong about the English track.

I wonder if it's possible to make a hybrid version of the anamorphic italian transfer along with the English subs from the Spanish DVD? Anyone know what software would be required to do that?