The Stanford Prison Experiment Review

"This experiment...is over." Kyle Patrick Alvarez brings us his third film he has directed with the docudrama The Stanford Prison Experiment. I stumbled across this movie entirely by chance and I am happy to say it was a good find.

This movie tells the story of Dr. Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment. Dr. Zimbardo (Billy Crudup) picked 24 students to partake in his experiment where he created a mock prison in the basement of Stanford, gave them a list of rules and let human nature run it's course. It's a fun ride watching as human nature is broken down and being able to witness what happens when a few people are given power.

I knew nothing about this subject before watching this movie. After watching this movie, I actually went back and read into the study even further but it was so interesting. The story telling throughout the film was spectacular and kept you on the edge of your seat wondering what this group of college students would do next.

The acting throughout the movie is spectacular. Billy Crudup does a amazing job portraying Dr. Philip Zimbardo as the man who becomes so engrossed with his work, he fails to see where a line should be drawn. Ezra Miller and Michael Angarano are outstanding in their portrayals of two of the students especially Michael Angarano. I started to develop an understanding and relate to both the prisoners and guards throughout the film.

I really enjoyed the cinematography throughout the film, as well as the accompanying music to give it an almost eerie tone as you see the experiment unravel. The pacing was terrific and I did not feel that any scene was wasted. The character development throughout the film showed the transformation that each student went through and what problems they had to endure on both sides.

I was very impressed with this movie. I learned quite a lot about a subject that I didn't even really know existed. It made me think about how I would react in similar situations and I related to each character in the film. I was captivated in the experiment that was supposed to last two weeks but was cut short to six days. I know this movie will remain in my mind much longer than that.

Grade: A-

Genre: Documentary/ Drama

Cast: Billy Crudup, Michael Angarano

Rated: R for language including abusive behavior and some sexual references

Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez

Stage Fright Review

"Break a leg!" Jerome Sable brings a interesting horror movie to the table with his musical/ slasher film "Stage Fright". Going into this film I wasn't quite sure what to expect. What I received was a disorganized mess, bad script and some "interesting" scenes.

IMDB's plot summary is amazing. "A snobby musical theater camp is terrorized by a blood thirsty killer who hates musical theater." That sums up what this movie is. A musical camp owner (Meat Loaf) is putting on the play "Haunting of the Opera" after it was shut down ten years ago because of a brutal murder of the lead actress. Now her daughter Camilla Swanson (Allie MacDonald) is a cook at the music camp and decides she wants to try out for her mothers role. But there is someone at the camp who doesn't want this play to go on and they are willing to kill to stop the play from being put on.

As a slasher on its own, it wasn't a very good movie. But adding in the musical elements to it, although setting it apart from other slasher movies, wasn't enough to make it an entertaining movie. I think in some instances it could have made it worse.

The acting in it is pretty bad. Allie MacDonald isn't very believable but in a movie like this what can one expect? The person who actually did an o.k. job throughout this movie was Meat Loaf. His character was just always fun to watch and I think it's just because of the fact that it's Meat Loaf playing him. The rest of the cast are just there and do not serve any part except for people to be killed. I never really felt bad for any of the people who died.

The movie felt like I was just waiting for the next person to die and after the opening flashback scene you have to wait until about the 40 min mark. It actually felt like a lot longer than that and just felt like it was dragging on and on. The movie wanted you to guess who was the killer but had such a obvious red herring it was ridiculous. I figured out who the killer was maybe about 30 seconds after they were introduced. The movie was riddled with cliches. The cinematography was nothing new and just a very generic film.

Stage Fright is Jerome Sable's first feature film and I was not impressed. Can't say I am looking to anything else he will direct. The movie was one big cliche that didn't bring anything new to the horror genre. Except that fact that it was a musical.

Grade: D-

Genre: Horror

Cast: Allie MacDonald, Meat Loaf

Rated: R for bloody horror violence, language and some sexual references

Director: Jerome Sable