Experiment, The

Aroview: Twenty men volunteer for a paid two-week simulated study that divides them into the roles of prisoners and guards in a ‘controlled’ environment, resulting in a ‘Lord of the Flies’-style struggle for control and power that leads to corruption and barbarism.

Taking its idea from a 1971 Stanford University experiment, it has resounding echoes of both Nazi Germany and reality television, intriguingly constrained by a “non-violent” code of conduct. But when an undercover journalist decides to agitate for the sake of a juicier story, rules get broken and things get decidedly confrontational ‘for real’. Like the experiment itself, the film loses discipline and psychological weight as it ratchets up the stakes and ultimately delivers no more than a physically intense, if still above-average, B-movie.

Incredible Film Fest 2002

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