State of Consciousness 2023 (Touch the Heart Productions / Falcon Pictures) Review

Here we go with another round with Big Spence, time to finish what we started. This is the last Big Spence film I’ll be reviewing (at least until he puts out something new in the future) and boy, did we save something special for last. State of Consciousness is like the “Big Budget” film of Touch the Heart Productions, with a wide variety of cool looking locations and extras. Marcus Spencer also worked with a different cinematographer and editor for this one, making for some improvements in those areas. But the sound work for the dialogue still suffers in this one at times. (So baby turn on those closed captions)

Big Spence at least knows how to open his movies in a dramatic way. The film starts with Edmund Sanders driving his fancy car down the empty roads at night. There are some cool shots of the car driving where the camera is attached to the side of the car and even a cool drone shot used in the opening sequence. Edmund Sanders ends up getting pulled over by a female officer. When we think he is about to get a ticket, Edmund shows off his hypnotizing powers. Apparently, he has the power to hypnotize people into doing whatever. In this instance, he makes the female officer make out with him.

The first day of work is always the most awkward right?

Whenever Edmund Sanders does his hypnosis, there is a satisfying snap sound effect with some nice sound design. It was cool every time he did it. Edmund mainly uses for powers of hypnosis to make out with ladies and steal money. (On a side note, the cringe factor always goes up a little when a writer director actor gives themselves make out and sex scenes, and Marcus gave himself a few in this) The hypnosis powers are a little undefined, they don’t really have rules applied to them so you don’t fully understand their limits. Because at times you ask yourself, why doesn’t this dude just use his hypo powers in this moment?

The first act of the movie is a bit all over the place. There isn’t really a clear direction or plot that forms until later we get till the half hour mark in the movie. I wasn’t sure if Edmund Sanders was the protagonist or antagonist. But thankfully things are kept at a solid pace, with the wide selection of impressive locations helping to keep things moving.

So Edmund hypnotizes a lady to walk into the bathroom so he can bang her. Not even in a stall mind you, but in front of the sink.

So Edmund Sanders works at this office where a new girl, Mahal (Kimberly Marquez) comes to work. It turns out that Mahal’s dad is a billionaire, so she becomes a mark for Edmund to kidnap and demand a ransom. Drama gets in the way though when coworker Martin (Hector Gomez Jr.) starts to hit it off with Mahal. I guess Edmund becomes jealous and uses his hypnosis on Martin to make him think Mahal is evil. He then turns to use his hypnosis on Mahal as well, but a phone call interrupts the process and things become awkward. Mahal then gets suss about Edmund and begins to look into his hypnosis powers.

At this point in the film, Edmund Sanders is getting desperate and has to kidnap her the old fashion way, by hiring someone to do the dirty deed. But at this point I’m like, don’t you have hypnosis powers dude? Are you not able to subdue Mahal again because she broke free once? Why wouldn’t you just hypnosis on the kidnappers to make them work for you for free? Why is doing any of this when he could just go the bank and hypnotize the teller? These are the questions one will have when watching.

“ I hypnotize you to review this movie 5 out of 5 stars”

The acting is unfortunately not at its best in this film. It’s that type of acting where it’s like 80% there, but not quite fully convincing so it comes off as weird. Marcus Spencer doesn’t have the commanding intimidating performance to make this role really leap off the screen. Kimberly Marquez turns in the best performance here, with also a shout out to the kidnapper’s valley girl girlfriend, just because she was hilarious.

The film ends in a way that I don’t think you can predict, it’s pretty wild and makes you say “What?!”. It’s not really a satisfying ending, but it’s kinda bonkers that it still leaves an impact. Overall, the concept for this film is pretty epic. A girl has to escape from a dude who has hypnosis powers. Like, that’s a story I can get behind. In terms of production, this is Marcus Spencer’s crowning jewel and is the most cinematic and well-paced out of his work. That being said, it is still held back by the bad sound, poor acting and cringe make out scenes.  To sum it up, if you want laugh out so bad it’s good, watch A Murder in Oakland, but if you want Marcus Spencer at his best, watch a State of Consciousness. Just pretend that “Who Needs It?” doesn’t exist.