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| The mysterious poster for Paul Sheuring's The Experiment |
A significant group of men are promised big checks if they participate in a prison experiment, which, however, within few days escalate without any of the scientists interfering.
The Experiment tells a scary story, inspired by the real Stanford prison experiment of 1971, which is well-acted and well-made with a few, important exceptions: We know as audiences that we are watching something based on a real event. But for a long time in the film, I wasn't sure if it was set in the 1970s or today, which is fatal for a film of this kind. The Experiment also loses quite a bit of its opportunity to surprise by showing violent animal and human footage during the opening credits. This lets us know exactly where we are heading right off the bat, - another pretty poor choice on the part of the filmmakers.
The Experiment is a remake of the successful German film Das Experiment (2001) by writer-director Paul Scheuring (36K (2000)). It is a rather unpleasant film.
Watch a clip from the film here, described as 'the infamous toilet scene'
Cost: 21.8-25 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown (but certainly a mega-flop)
[The Experiment premiered July 15 (South Korea) and runs 96 minutes. It was shot in and around July 2009. Elijah Wood was originally cast but bowed out of the production after a few days. SPOILER The real Stanford prison experiment was quite different and less dramatic than the depiction in the film. Its production and release is shrouded in mystery with little known about it and the big question being why it was dumped straight-to-DVD in North America and almost every other market globally. Especially for a relatively expensive film, this is curious. 41,261 IMDb users have given the film a 6.4/10 average rating.]
What do you think of The Experiment?
If you know any details about its troubled production and/or release, please contribute in a comment
