More than a decade on from The Others, Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar has returned to genre filmmaking with Regression. Emma Watson and Ethan Hawke star in the psychological thriller, the first still from which has just been released.
Watson plays Angela Gray, a young woman who accuses her father (Daniel Dencik) of sexual abuse. He submits to the investigation by Hawke's detective, although he has no recollection of the alleged events. So the stage is set for regression therapist David Thewlis to pick through Dad's repressed memories and uncover a disturbing conspiracy.
The excellent Amenábar made his debut with the serial killer thriller Tesis in 1996, and followed it a year later with Open Your Eyes (remade by Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise as Vanilla Sky). Since the clasically spooky The Others in 2001 his output has slowed, but he did direct the biographical drama The Sea Inside in 2004 and the historical Agora in 2009. Here's hoping Regression marks a return to more regular engagements.
Amenábar, as per usual, wrote his own screenplay, and shooting has just wrapped. The scheduled US release is on August 18 next year, but we don't have a date for the UK so far.