REVIEW: Regression

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Emma Watson, David Thewlis, David Dencik, Devon Bostick, Aaron Ashmore, Dale Dickey, Peter MacNeill, Lothaire Bluteau.

Director: Alejandro Amenabar.

AS well as referring to a controversial therapy technique, which claims to heal patients by unearthing deeply buried memories, regression also describes a progressive decline to a less perfect state.

It's a fitting title for this psychological thriller, written and directed by Alejandro Amenabar, which takes a tantalising premise based on true events about satanism in small-town America, and fashions it into formulaic, yawn-inducing hokum.

The Oscar-winning Chilean filmmaker is well versed in teasing out never-jangling horror in communities under the yoke of religion, having previously chilled spines with his ghost story The Others starring Nicole Kidman.

Here, Amenabar resorts to familiar imagery - hooded devil worshippers, ritualistic sacrifice, inverted crosses - and heavy-handedly signposts his true intentions, dissipating any mystery or suspense that might be generated by various hallucinations and flashbacks.

British Emma Watson takes a small step away from her signature role as goody-two-shoes Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series by portraying a sexual abuse victim, whose tearful confession sets the plot's creaking wheels in motion.

Her accent isn't flawless but then neither is Ethan Hawke's portrayal of the crusading cop who vows to protect her.

The year is 1990 and in the God-fearing town of Hoyek, Minnesota, mechanic John Gray (David Dencik) makes a nervous confession to police chief Cleveland (Peter MacNeill) that he sexually abused his 17-year-old daughter Angela (Watson) during a satanic ritual.

Gray claims to have no clear recollection of the incident, which irritates lead detective Bruce Kenner (Hawke), who wants to close the case in a timely fashion.

He enlists the services of British psychoanalyst Dr Kenneth Raines (David Thewlis) to piece together the truth from John and Angela's fractured memories.

"It's not that difficult to find a key, provoke a regression," Dr Raines assures the police.

These testimonies, and the recollections of Angela's outcast brother Roy (Devon Bostick), cast a dark shadow over the close-knit community and force Kenner to interrogate Angela's grandmother Rose (Dale Dickey) and one of his own police colleagues.

Meanwhile, Reverend Murray (Lothaire Bluteau) cares for Angela at the Joy Of Salvation Church and whips his congregation into a frenzy with dire warnings about hell and damnation.

Regression unfolds in a time before CSI-style technical wizardry, resorting to old-fashioned police work and face-to-face interviews to make sense of the mounting suspicion.

Amenabar touches upon themes of collective hysteria, devotion and self-sacrifice but becomes too bogged down in the mechanics of trying to scare us.

Hawke mumbles his flaccid lines with minimum effort, mirroring our lack of interest in the investigation.

Infuriating contrivances and police incompetence withhold simple yet vital information until the closing 10 minutes in order to engineer what passes meekly for a final reckoning.

Damon Smith