Let me preface this review by saying that I don't classify "The Experiment" as a bad film, but rather a mediocre and forgettable one that managed to make me feel uncomfortable, but failed to engage me.
The initial premise is intriguing and very engaging; a failed reporter and taxi driver volunteers for an experiment about the relationships between prisoners and their guards. In said experiment, eight of the volunteers become guards, and the remaining twelve become prisoners. Our protagonist becomes one of the prisoners.
For roughly the first two thirds of the movie, I intermittently was fascinated and uninterested in the film due to several consistent problems it has. For example, the truly intense sequences in which the guards try to maintain control over the more rowdy prisoners without the use of violence (as the people in charge are always watching via cameras) are repeatedly broken up by completely useless cutaways to 77's girlfriend, and far too many scenes of the same variety. The film is a good fifteen minutes too long.
However, the feelings of claustrophobia, tension, and eventually hopelessness that the film tries so persistently to evoke are conveyed brilliantly at times, such as a panic attack suffered by a character midway through the film. The performances, while unoriginal, serve their purpose well and don't detract from the film.
In the end, "The Experiment" is a bit of a mixed bag. It has an intriguing concept with some truly disquieting moments, but it has a huge problem with predictability and editing itself. The film would have been far more effective with a minimalist style, never leaving the prisoners and their torments, rather than cutting away periodically for a character who, in the end, could have been erased entirely.
The initial premise is intriguing and very engaging; a failed reporter and taxi driver volunteers for an experiment about the relationships between prisoners and their guards. In said experiment, eight of the volunteers become guards, and the remaining twelve become prisoners. Our protagonist becomes one of the prisoners.
For roughly the first two thirds of the movie, I intermittently was fascinated and uninterested in the film due to several consistent problems it has. For example, the truly intense sequences in which the guards try to maintain control over the more rowdy prisoners without the use of violence (as the people in charge are always watching via cameras) are repeatedly broken up by completely useless cutaways to 77's girlfriend, and far too many scenes of the same variety. The film is a good fifteen minutes too long.
However, the feelings of claustrophobia, tension, and eventually hopelessness that the film tries so persistently to evoke are conveyed brilliantly at times, such as a panic attack suffered by a character midway through the film. The performances, while unoriginal, serve their purpose well and don't detract from the film.
In the end, "The Experiment" is a bit of a mixed bag. It has an intriguing concept with some truly disquieting moments, but it has a huge problem with predictability and editing itself. The film would have been far more effective with a minimalist style, never leaving the prisoners and their torments, rather than cutting away periodically for a character who, in the end, could have been erased entirely.