Film Review – The Stanford Prison Experiment

The actual Stanford Prison Experiment has inspired a few post-mortem documentaries and dramatic endeavors over the last four decades, most notably the 2001 German production, “Das Experiment.” It’s a scenario that’s built for screen exploration, offering actors juicy parts to play as average men are lured into extraordinary responses to a pressurized situation. For a director, the premise is thematically rich and wide open for suspenseful extremes, also challenging visual skill with its claustrophobic setting. “The Stanford Prison Experiment” is handled well by helmer Kyle Patrick Alvarez (“Easier with Practice”), who extracts enough tension and bizarre behavior to keep hostilities and cruelties compelling, though the inherent limitations and repetition of the Experiment retains its unsatisfying influence over the entire movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com