The experiment was secretly filmed but had to be aborted after only five days as the guards, although eschewing physical violence, had become horrifically despotic and aggressive. "The guards began to escalate their use of power," Zimbardo later reflected, "Some of them had prisoners clean out their toilet bowls with their bare hands... they now taunted, humiliated and degraded the prisoners...."
This notorious project provided the premise for Mario Fiordano's novel, Black Box, the source material for The Experiment. The horror of Zimbardo's investigation is taken several stages further with sexual assault, sensory deprivation and murder among the evils that the prisoners face. Their chief rebel, Tarek Fahd, is played by German star Moritz Bleibtreu, best known for his role in Run, Lola, Run (1998). Here he portrays an undercover journalist, initially desperate for a scoop, but ultimately desperate to simply survive the nightmarish ordeal which spirals out of control when even the project's organisers are taken captive by the guards.
Brimming with brutality and overt sadism, this cannot be termed a pleasant film. In an era when the silver screen is awash with blood, the actual violence may not raise eyebrows, but the guards' ingenious cruelty leads to several gripping but genuinely disquieting scenes. The early course of the film is fairly predictable, with the volunteers' initial good humour quickly replaced by terror and trauma, but several neat twists ensure the outcome remains unexpected.
Director Oliver Hirschbiegel loads his debut feature with strong, interesting characters, with Andrea Sawatzki delivering a stand out performance as the appropriately named Dr Grimm. "You may experience some extreme situations," she tells the volunteers before they begin the project. The Experiment proves as extreme as it gets.
Gavin Collinson
Cast and crew watched actual footage of Zimbardo's experiment to ensure a harsh authenticity.
