Why can't Notre Dame seem to quit Brian Kelly? I thought when he left, the university would be free of his stench forever... nope! For some reason, despite Marcus Freeman saying he wants a power run offense, he hires away Brian Kelly's offensive coordinator, bringing that terrible offense back, but worse. A guy who seems allergic to having a quarterback under center. I hate watching a QB who can't throw sail passes over open guys when they have two very good running backs collecting dust in the backfield. I hate it. Oh well, at least today is a bye week. So yeah, let's talk about...
The Sleep Experiment (2022)
When I did my review for the movie Midnight Man I predicted we'd start seeing movies based on Creepypastas more frequently. Creepypastas are horror stories written anonymously on websites like 4chan, that get picked up and passed around on other forums. They're fun to read and I can imagine the movies are cheap to make. Since I made that prediction, Hollywood hasn't dipped its toes too deep into Creepypasta, but independent filmmakers certainly have.
The movie is based on the story "The Russian Sleep Experiment." Five political prisoners are chosen to take part in a Soviet experiment after World War II. They are to go into a sealed room with running water, cots a toilet and enough food to last 30 days. Meanwhile, it's explained to them a gas will be pumped into the room that prevents them from sleeping. The scientists lie, saying if they last the 30 days they'll be given their freedom. I think it's safe to say that we know where this is going.
The movie takes the basic story but takes some liberties and makes the story more grounded than the insanity of the short story. In this movie it's England doing the experiments, there's an added rule where the test subjects are forbidden from any physical contact with one another. Plus, the subjects are convicted murderers, not political prisoners.
When we pick up the story, everything's already happened many years ago and two officers are interrogating the lead scientist, trying to get to the bottom of why the experiment ended in the deaths of so many people. I'm going to go off-brand for a minute here to discuss why this movie surprised me. In case you didn't know this, I love Batman. The games, movies and comics, I heart them all. My biggest problem with the live-action movies is the trend that Christopher Nolan started, the seeming embarrassment of making a comic book movie so they're obsessed with making the story as realistic as possible. You take a whole lot of fun out of a character like Batman when you ditch the fantastical. It's how you get lame name changes like "Oz Cobb." Directors get over yourselves, it's not beneath you to make live-action comic book stories. "Gotham" wasn't a great show, probably not even very good, but I loved it dearly. Why? Because after being serious in season one, it threw logic to the wall and embraced the insanity of Gotham City. It was one of my favorite shows to watch because it was so over-the-top insane that it was a blast.
I tell you that because I was very surprised that I liked The Sleep Experiment more than I did the short story, mainly because I liked the story beats better. I enjoyed the combustible elements of locking five murderers in a room without sleep for 30 days and seeing them slowly creep toward insanity. These are dangerous men that don't know each other so none of them know what the other is capable of. It makes for extremely tense moments because you know shit could go sideways in an instant and the only thing keeping them at bay is the promise of freedom.
Out of all the characters, my favorite was an inmate named Luke. To look at him, you wouldn't think much of him, but he was the scariest guy out of all of them. He showed very little emotion, was a lot smarter than everyone in the room and had no second thoughts about what he'd done. Growing up, his mother was paralyzed and he took care of her. He was extremely protective of her and casually admitted he would murder people who messed with her. When the group expresses shock that he'd murdered kids, he seems confused as to why they think it's wrong, he makes no distinction for his victims. One of the other inmates, Edward, thinks Luke is the one who killed his daughter, and Luke doesn't care enough to correct him.
You may be asking yourself, "What could they gain from this experiment?" It's a good question that the original story doesn't touch on. The movie gives the absolute best possible answer; nothing, but you have to wait a bit to understand. There's a scene where the doctor is explaining to the detectives what a psychopath is. They ask him how you could tell if someone is one by talking to them. The doctor answers, "You couldn't." It's a good moment but gets better as the movie goes on because you realize that scene has multiple meanings.
Ultimately, you realize the whole basis of this experiment was just one man setting everything up for the sole reason that he wanted it to fail because he wanted to watch the aftermath. It is one of the more chilling reveals I can remember watching. There was no scientific reason for this to happen, it was just one person's cruelty because he's a psychopath.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It's one of those films where you watch it and you feel one way about it, but it kind of gets stuck in your head. I've been thinking about it ever since I saw the words "The End" and I appreciate it even more. It hums along at a good pace, you're given enough to learn about the characters and it rachets up the tension as paranoia and insanity creeps in on the characters. This is well worth the watch.
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