Experiment going unpredictable and extreme.

Would you like to earn some extra cash on a two-week experiment that you could stop at any time? Some would, like these 20 characters in this film. 2 weeks in prison, some assuming the role of guards and some of prisoners. Guards are given the liberty to arrange things pretty much the way they want, with only one major rule: no violence allowed.

Director Hirschbiegel uses slightly artistic surreal style very well, although he had done only tv work before this first feature film. The story itself goes pretty slow in the first hour of the movie, thought it accelerates according to circumstances. The more extreme they get, the faster will the pace go as well. The last half an hour of the film is pure, breathtaking gold.

This film is one great study of both ethics and on psychology about how a bunch of individuals will react in circumstances going both unpredictable and extreme in an accelerating pace. The viewer gets drawn to witness this happening and to do some serious thinking both during the film and after.

Das Experiment is quite uneasy and disturbing to watch but it sure delivers what it wants to, easy or not.

8/10