HYPNO

The Story

Ray Curtis makes a living guiding others toward control, using hypnosis to free his clients from addiction, fear, and self-destruction. But his own life is anything but controlled.

Still haunted by the suicide of his wife, Tess, following a violent break-in and the loss of their unborn child, Ray carries a quiet, suffocating guilt that no amount of healing others can erase. His fragile routine shatters when his estranged father is diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and refuses treatment, choosing instead to accept his fate. Faced with losing the only family he has left, Ray becomes obsessed with defying the inevitability of death itself. When his career begins to falter and desperation sets in, he uncovers an obscure text rooted in Czech folklore, an ancient practice said to unlock the subconscious and manifest dreams into reality. But what Ray awakens is not a miracle. It’s something far more ancient, predatory, and unforgiving.

Positioned firmly in the elevated horror space of A24 and Neon, HYPNO is a deeply atmospheric descent into grief, control, and the terrifying cost of refusing to let go. As Ray pushes further into the ritual, the line between memory and nightmare collapses and the entity he conjures takes the form of Tess, twisting his deepest love into something monstrous: a soul-eating demon that feeds on broken men who cannot accept loss. At its core, the film is an intimate and emotionally raw story about a son grappling with the realization that control over life and death is an illusion and that the fear of losing the last person he loves pales in comparison to the horror of what he’s unleashed trying to prevent it. Blending psychological dread with rich Czech folklore, HYPNO explores the fragile bonds between fathers and sons, the sacrifices we make for family, and the devastating consequences of love when it turns into obsession.