Genre: Drama/Thriller
Director: David Lynch
Writer: Mo Buck
Cast: Michael Shannon, Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Idris Elba, Octavia Spencer
Plot: Dr. Jennings (Michael Shannon) is getting ready to welcome his new clients in his office. He’s a psychologist. He sets up his room just like he likes it. He always sets it up the same way. He takes off everything from his desk and places it all in the bottom drawer. He takes down his diploma from the wall behind the desk and puts up a beautiful painting of a forest, with the shadow of a centaur. His entire office is painted in red. He likes the color and loves to think it helps to relax. He places his armchair in front of his desk and places the couch on which his patients sit in front of his chair, but with an angle so they can always see the painting and his face. He tests it to see if he got it right. He takes his notepad and places it on the coffee table in front of his armchair. He starts his coffee machine, he doesn’t like coffee, but his clients sure do. He sits on his armchair, smiling, patiently waiting for them to arrive.
Colin (Colin Firth) and Nicole (Nicole Kidman) are on their way to the see a psychologist. Their couple has been struggling for some time, especially since Colin learned Nicole cheated on him twice with the gardener. She usually talks all the time when they’re in a car, but this time she shuts up. It was his idea to see a psychologist, she didn’t agree, but she decided to go for it anyway. You can feel the discomfort from across the screen. He finally opens his mouth and asks her if she still loves him. She reassures him and says of course she still loves him. She asks if he still think that seeing Dr. Jennings is a good idea, still secretly hoping he’ll change his mind, but he’s still confident it’s going to help them to stay together. He parks his car and they go inside.
They’re greeted by Jennings, smiling. He invites them inside and offers them coffee, they both accept. While he’s gone, Colin tells Nicole he likes him and Nicole says he looks like a creep. Colin tells her to stop being negative all the time. Jennings comes back and tells them that he heard them and he’s sorry if he looked like a creep earlier. Nicole asks him how on Earth did he heard her and he answers that he always listens to what his patients say, at anytime, because they always reveal themselves when they think no one is listening. Nicole doesn’t say it out loud, but she’s even more confident that Dr. Jennings is a grade-A creep.
Jennings asks them who decided to come and see him. Colin raises his hand. Jennings finds it interesting. He asks the reason for their visit. Colin says Nicole cheated on him, twice, with their gardener. Nicole tries to justify herself, saying Colin is rarely present and doesn’t seem to love her anymore. Jennings says Colin still loves her, because if not he wouldn’t have suggested a visit to see him. Nicole says she still loves her husband, but he seems to have a problem with her. Jennings doesn’t say anything, but he asks Colin to leave the room and wait in the kitchenette. He does and Nicole feels uncomfortable. Jennings tells her to concentrate on the centaur on the picture behind her. She focuses on it and Jennings tells her that she needs to be more open and to show a little more love to her husband. Nicole, however, doesn’t hear Jennings anymore, she’s really concentrated on the centaur, it’s like she’s in trance. Feeling he doesn’t listen to him anymore, Jennings gets up and drops the painting on the ground. Nicole gets up, shaken. He grabs her by the arm and talks to her, looking straight in her eyes, saying that she’ll not cheat on her husband anymore. Nicole is now crying and answers no. She curls up on the couch and Jennings leaves the room, leaving her alone. He goes to talk to Colin, who didn’t hear what just happened. Jennings tells him that she’s just sorry and she’s emotionally unstable. He tells Colin that he needs to care more for her, he sees a deep emotional wound inside Nicole. The conversation goes on and on and Colin starts talking to Jennings about sports. Colin looks at his watch and it’s now four o’clock. He insists on leaving, Jennings wanted him to stay. He goes to fetch his wife, still lying on the couch, the painting on the ground. They hug and they leave Jennings’ office. In the car, Nicole tells Colin that she never wants to go in there again and Colin insists that they’ll come back. He liked the guy, she did not. Colin turns on the radio and Nicole starts looking outside. At one point, she starts screaming, she sees a centaur in the middle of the road.
Idris (Idris Elba) and Octavia (Octavia Spencer) are living a seemingly happy life in their suburban home, with their two kids and their dog. Idris, a high-ranked executive in an emerging company and Octavia, a lawyer, are regarded by their neighbours has the perfect couple. However, Octavia feels like Idris doesn’t love him like he used to, small details she noticed in their relationship, that she didn’t care before, but as time goes by, Octavia thinks he should show that he cares, after all these years. Octavia decided that it was time for them to see a psychologist to try to save their couple. She saw an ad for Jennings in the paper and dragged Idris there with her. Jennings already did his pre-client routine and he’s waiting for them, smiling. Idris and Octavia arrive at the office and are greeted by Jennings. He offers them coffee and they both accept. While he was in the kitchenette, Idris says to Octavia that he thinks Jennings looks and acts weird. He comes back with the coffee and starts a discussion with them, small talk. He finally asks them who decided to come and see him and Octavia says it was her. When asked why, she answers that she feels Idris isn’t 100% committed to their relationship. He asks Octavia to leave the room and go wait in the kitchenette and to close the door. Idris remains alone with Jennings and the vibe in the room is really weird. Jennings asks Idris to focus on the centaur behind him. Jennings starts to talk sense into Idris. He says he’s got a nice family life and a great wife. He says many people would like to have a life like that and he shouldn’t let it go away, or he’ll regret it. Idris starts crying. Jennings gets up and moves closer to Idris, looking at him directly in the face. With a huge grin on his face, he tells Idris that he should take care of his wife. He leaves Idris on his couch and goes in the kitchenette to talk to Octavia. They get along really well. When Octavia decides to leave, she goes back to fetch Idris and she finds him focused on the centaur on the painting behind the desk. She takes him with him and they leave. Idris tells her that he doesn’t feel like driving and they go home. Hours later, Idris is watching the dishes and Octavia is watching TV. She suddenly hears a loud band sees Idris, looking outside with his mouth wide open. He just dropped a plate. He’s seeing the centaur near their pool.
Colin stops the car after Nicole started screaming. They stop in a parking lot and Colin asks his wife what’s wrong. She says there’s a creature on the street, but she can’t see it anymore. Colin turns around to try to see the said creature and he quickly turns around after Nicole screams again. She sees the centaur in front of their car. It turns around and it has the face of Dr. Jennings.
Octavia rushes to her husband and asks him if he’s alright. He says he saw a creature outside. She looks outside too, but she can’t see anything. They look together, and Idris starts screaming. He sees the centaur right in front of the window. It has the face of Dr. Jennings.
After her episode of terror, Colin brang his wife back home. She explained to him that she saw a centaur in Jennings’ office and that she saw it again twice today. She adds that she never wants to see him ever again. She told him he gave her the creeps. Idris is telling the exact same thing to Octavia. It’s Octavia who decides to call Jennings first, against Idris’ wishes. He immediately answers the phone and she explains the problem to him. He agrees to meet with them again first thing in the morning. Octavia is satisfied and Idris disagrees. Colin also calls Jennings and he also tells him that he would meet them first thing in the morning.
Night has come, and everyone is going to bed. Idris and Nicole are still a little bit shaken by what happened today. Nicole has a dream. She wakes up in the forest alone. She hears someone screaming. She walks in this direction. She makes her way through the trees and finally locates the source of the screams. She sees a man tied to a gigantic tree and a centaur skinning him alive. Nicole tries to go away, but the centaur heard her. It turns around and starts running after her. It pins her to the ground and sees its face, it’s Jennings’. She wakes up, panicked. Idris also wakes up, sweating. Octavia is woken up by her husband and asks him what’s wrong. He says he dreamt that he was skinned alive by a centaur with Jennings’ face and a lady arrived to save him.
The next morning, before the two couples arrive, Jennings takes the painting of the centaur with him and brings it to the attic. He takes another painting, this one a representation of death in a white background and decides to hang it on the wall. He takes everything off his desk and as he was sitting down, he hears someone knocking on the door. Octavia and Idris have arrived. He invites them to sit down, Idris isn’t feeling well. He starts talking about the painting with the centaur, but he realises that it isn’t there anymore. Jennings says it’s a typical case of denial. He says Idris obviously didn’t like his first visit and didn’t want to come back, so he made things up to make sure he would never sit on that couch ever again. Idris says it’s not true, but Jennings says it’s very common. Nicole and Colin arrive. They enter the office and Jennings invites them in his office, with Octavia and Idris, since they both have the same problem. He goes in the kitchenette to grab two chairs for his new guests, but he remains there and watches the two couples. Colin greets them both and Nicole and Idris have a serious eye contact. Without saying a word, they both realise they saw each other in their respective dream. There’s no way that sh*t is made up, Idris thinks. Nicole tells Colin about the centaur painting, but it’s not there anymore. Just like Octavia, Colin starts to get more sceptical about his wife. Jennings comes back and starts talking to them about denial, like it’s a mandatory phase. After a while, both couples decide to leave, as all their questions were answered.
The only problem is that they both continue to see the centaur occasionally. Their existence is literally ruined by that creature. After a while, Colin doesn’t know what to do with wife, neither does Octavia with her husband. They both decide to send them to the hospital to see if there’s something wrong in their head. They are both put in the same room. Octavia and Colin discuss about what forced them to go see Jennings in the first place. They both understand that they made the right decision, as their couples were struggling. While they are talking, Jennings arrives at the hospital and goes to see Idris and Nicole. When they see him arrive, their heart rates jump. He closes the door behind him. Idris asks him what he did to them. Jennings tells them that he used the power of hypnotism to conduct a little experiment. He’s now convinced that he can make people emotionally weak, to the point where everyone thinks their crazy. He says that the centaur was just one trick he could’ve used, but it’s the best one he’s had so far. Nicole adds that there was a painting of death in his office the last time they visited. He tells them that the death painting is usually reserved for the last time a patient visits his office. He knocks down a flower vase and picks up a shard of glass, without both of them noticing. He says he enjoys seeing people mentally collapsing. He sits on Idris’ bed and slowly cuts his throat. His heart rate slowly decreases, he unplugs the monitor. Nicole didn’t notice anything, still captivated by what Jennings is telling them. He gets up and he sits on Nicole’s bed. He says that he’s so good at what he does that nobody ever caught him. He unplugs her monitor and tells her that she’ so captivated by him, that she forgot to notice that Idris was dead. He cuts her throat, cleans the shard of glass and presses on a button to alert a nurse. He quickly leaves the room, closing the door. He sees Octavia and Colin still talking outside. A nurse enters the room and alerts the other doctors. Octavia and Colin get up, with absolutely no idea about what just happened.
Dr. Jennings is doing his routine again. He hangs the centaur painting on the wall and sits in his armchair, waiting. He thinks about Nicole and Idris and smiles, just like he always thinks about his previous victims before welcoming new clients. He hears someone knock at the door and gets up. The camera zooms in on the centaur.
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