Past Life Review – A hypnotist opens a psychic portal in a British mystery on the trail of a serial killer | film

IIf movies had a previous life, Simeon Halligan’s memory-stirring thriller might have been a brilliant ’90s psychodrama, a Twilight Zone episode, or even a beguiling Hitchcockian excursion. But set in the 2020s, it’s supposed to be a serviceable, low-budget British outing featuring Jeremy Piven who, as other big names might have called him, officially anchors the case as a celebrity hypnotist leading a client into dangerous waters.

Traumatized Manchester journalist Jason (Aneurin Barnard, soon to be seen as the titular character in Duncan Jones’ Rogue Trooper) returns to Syria, where six years ago he witnessed jihadists slit the throat of a colleague. It’s probably a bad idea then, just before setting off, to volunteer on live television to be hypnotized by Timothy Bevan (Peven), who claims to allow gamblers access to past incarnations. Jason is instantly transported to the crimson hall of terror lined entrance; A portal opens to a horrific stabbing scene that he appears to have previously committed himself. So pregnant wife Clera (Pixy Lott) pressures him to return to Bevan to close this door and lock it once and for all.

The journalist and hypnotist effectively play makeshift detectives, tracking down the former serial killer’s ancestor through clues, all captured on a roving color camera (the first crime scene is on Mangel Street). Halligan’s film is at its best when it is skillfully layered into the eerie subconscious with the interweaving of reality and memory. Jason’s arthritis-squeezing gloves mirror the killer’s sheathed hands, and the bluesman’s agonizing howls herald frightening psychological outbursts in his waking life. A not-so-strange coincidence: The musician also appeared in a poster installed in the home of a true-crime podcaster (Nicholas Farrell) who was consulted by the duo.

Unfortunately, this power of suggestion is not well supported by the accumulation of plot tricks in the latter part of the film, where Tim McInerney’s psychology lecturer appears in the frame. Nor does the text reliably support his implication that all this might also be a projection, or a case of false memory. With no real mystery surrounding this Mancunian candidate, Barnard is left giving a one-dimensional performance, compared to the arrogant defensive remarks with which Piven supports his character. But it remains watchable throughout, if not in the same charming category as Danny Boyle’s “Trance” films.