Psychic Confession

This is a documentary by a professional magician exposing a self-styled psychic. No, not James Randi this time, but Danny Korem, although Randi has also replicated Hydrick’s trick. More than three and a half decades on, Psychic Confession is also a tragic document, because it illustrates clearly what might have been.

James Hydrick had an appalling start in life, and it is little wonder that he ended up in prison. During that sojourn he pioneered an amazing magic trick; he was able to move the pages of a book or a pencil by undetectable but powerful blasts of controlled breathing. He palmed off this trick on a credulous and compliant media, using it to shoot to a fleeting fame as both a psychic and a martial arts instructor.

Sadly, it was not to last, and instead of developing a career in either martial arts or entertainment, he ended up back in prison for of all things receiving stolen guns. Why on Earth would he do that? Wherever and however he developed his martial arts talent, he had a lot of charisma and was no mean intellect. As a boy he was branded a retard (politely), and was either totally illiterate or semi-literate, but, he says, he learned to read while incarcerated, and prison could have been the making of him.

He was in prison when this documentary finished, by which time he had confessed his trick to Korem, having failed to replicate it under controlled conditions.

Sadly, things would get much worse. While he was also handsome, and could undoubtedly have found himself an upmarket girlfriend, Hydrick appears to be homosexual. Far, far worse than that, he is also a paedophile, and in 1989, he received a 17 year sentenced for abusing underage boys. Although he could have been parolled after eight and a half years, at the time of writing he is still behind bars, though in a hospital rather than a prison. So sad. On a lighter note, the classiest line in Psychic Confession goes to Hydrick’s mother. Speaking of his father she says “He was a good provider, he was a good husband, he just happened to be a wife-beater.”

[The above review should have been published by IMDb on August 5, 2025 having been submitted with two other reviews that were published the same date. It was held up for some reason but as far as I can see has not actually been declined. Having waited long enough and then some, it was published here as dated.]