Celeste is struggling to get her life in order. Between losing her job and breaking up with her boyfriend, she feels aimless and unloved, so she seeks advice from her sister who seems to have it all together. Her sister tells her about a self-help system called Magnetic Hypnotism that has helped her and gives her a vinyl record to listen to while she sleeps. Before long, Celeste’s fortunes really do start to turn around, but she begins to feel unsettled, suffering from weird mental hiccups. She seeks out the daughter of the founder of the self-help system (played by Christina Lindberg of Thriller: A Cruel Picture) where she discovers the sinister truth of what is really happening and where peace of mind comes at a cost.

Directed by fascinating Spanish director Adrián García Bogliano (Here Comes the Devil, Night Phases), this Mexican/Swedish co-production is definitely not your run-of-the-mill horror film. It has a cool, retro aesthetic with bizarre interjections into the narrative at times, and is very much a slow burn. It’s probably halfway through the film before we discover the secret behind Magnetic Hypnotism and the way the action plays out is in a very non-conventional way. Some may even be turned off by the somewhat vague, anti-climactic ending and heady, abstract ideas the film assaults its audience with, particularly in the final act. At its core, Black Circle feels more like an art film akin to the likes of Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio (which also had a similarly vague, enigmatic ending). Actually another similarity to Berberian Sound Studio is in Black Circle’s excellent sound design (the included soundtrack CD is a great bonus!). Don’t get me wrong though. From a plotting standpoint, Black Circle and Berberian Sound Studio really don’t have a great deal in common. Black Circle traffics more in the concept of doppelgängers as a physical extension of one’s mental fracturing. Aesthetically it shares similarities with the films of Panos Cosmatos with it’s mixture of languid pacing and fast cut, non-linear montage. This feels like it should be a contradiction in tone but like Cosmatos, Bogliano pulls it off for the most part. Honestly, the movie’s biggest downside is, like Bogliano’s previous films, the obviously limited budget at times which seems to artificially restrict the scope of what Bogliano was perhaps wanting to accomplish with it. Still, it doesn’t feel fruitful in condemning the film for what it isn’t, but I would like to see what Bogliano would do with a bigger budget.

One area you can usually count on with Synapse to deliver is on the technical specs, and Black Circle is certainly no exception. The movie looks and sounds great with a very clean, crisp transfer and an excellent 5.1 surround sound audio track that conveys the fantastic sound design and cool, moody score really well. For extras, I’ve already mentioned one great one, the bonus audio CD featuring the score. I absolutely love bonus CDs and wish more releases had them. We also get an audio commentary from the director which is decent but with his accent it can be a bit difficult to pay attention to for the full duration of the film. We also get an interview with the director and Christina Lindberg which I actually preferred to the commentary. It was more succinct and focused in general. There’s also a behind-the-scenes featurette if you dig those and the original short film that Black Circle was based on, much of which was included pretty much the same in the film as it was shown in the short.

While Black Circle isn’t what I’d call a thrill-a-minute shocker, for those who love to sink their teeth into a more methodically paced mood piece with excellent sound design and a mind-bending plot, I think you will find a lot to like here.