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Released in 2001, Das Experiment (The Experiment) did not quite register as a must watch on my list until I picked it up yesterday. One of those rare makes your hair stand up for hours after you’ve watched it, The Experiment represents an amazing amalgamation of an imaginative story coupled together with etching out human nature and it’s psyche in not so normal situations.

It is rumored that The Experiment has had it’s inspirations from “The Stanford Prison Experiment” (link), that was quickly shut down because of it’s shocking results in the participants who volunteered in the experiment.

Back to the movie, taxi driver Tarek (Moritz Bleibtreu) reading a newspaper ad inviting volunteers to an psychological experiment. Selected volunteers would be paid well, provided they did not break the rules of the experiment and stayed for the whole process for it’s entire length of two weeks.

What is the Experiment?

A prison simulation. Twenty volunteers are selected and divided into two groups. Twelve prisoners and eight guards. They will live in a in camera jail built for this experiment. The prisoners have to behave like prisoners, the guards as if they real guards. Two weeks. No violence. No breaking rules. And if they succeed, each one gets 4000 bucks.

It all starts out as fun and amusing, till, step by step, things start turning ugly, messy. Each volunteers psyche starts reacting uniquely creating the grounds for a horrific scenario that even the scientists monitoring the experiment, find it difficult to control. And as Tarek fights hard to keep himself from collapsing under the brutality of the experiment, he gets emotional support from Steinhoff (Christian Berkel) who is in the experiment for his own motives.

Under-a-microscope the script and movie may have quite a few holes, but as a whole, screenwriters Christoph Darnstädt, Don Bohlinger along with writer Mario Giordano, whose novel “Black Box”, the screenplay is based on, have done a fabulous job.

Another thing that strikes you, besides the story, is the intelligently written screenplay which starts on an easy pace (with a fast high pitch background score) and gently gathers pace, shifting gears, and accelerating to mind boggling speed, till it has sucked you in it’s twister. It is quite rare to see such highly precision controlled pace provided in a movie that also serves as a brilliant hooking point for the viewer. And by the time the movie reaches it’s climax your hearts beating at bullet speed and you may find yourself gasping for breath.

Full-kudos-to director Oliver Hirschbiegel for providing a neat visual representation to the story. His mark can particularly be felt in the scenes where Tarek and his sweetheart psychically communicate with each other.

Bleibtreu as Tarek is first rate as the guy who’s trying to throw his weight around the guards and his internal collapse in the face of humiliation. Berkel as his cell mate, as usual, is razor sharp in his performance. (By the way is there any German movie that does not have Berkel in it?)

A not to be missed story even if it may not be your cup of tea. It serves as a good insight for learning some of the tools writers use to create gripping screenplays.

Rated A Plus in my books.

Has nudity and harsh language. Cannot be watched with children.

Ensure your phones are switched off, your significant other is not at home to pester you and a do not disturb sign is hooked outside your door. Watch this one with zero expectations and let it suck you in.

DasExperiment,[link at Amazon.com]

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