Minnesota, 1990. Detective Bruce Kenner is charge with questioning John Gray, a Christian family man accused by his daughter Angela, 17, of raping her. But when she can’t remember the exact events, a psychologist is called to use regression therapy on her to recover her memories. Kenner soon discovers that the Gray family is tied to a mysterious secret community that performs local satanic rituals…

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What has happened to Alejandro Amenabar? After gaining attention in 1996 with Thesis, and critical recognition for Open Your Eyes in 1997, the Spanish director found international fame with The Others, an excellent supernatural movie starring Nicole Kidman. Six years after the beautiful but failed Agora starring Rachel Weisz, Regression is a mess: impersonal, insignificant and dumb, this low-rent, stereotypical thriller looks like a run-of-the-mill attempt at placating the studio while Amenabar put together a “real” project. This may be the best explanation for this bad X-Files episode that checks off all the thriller ingredients (small town, lone cop, witness interviews, subterfuge) and adds a bit of satanic ritual. While Ethan Hawke phones it in and makes you want to re-watch Sinister, Emma Watson is stuck in a ridiculous and monotonous role, incapable of doing much about it.