Title: The Atticus Institute
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Director: Chris Sparling
Writer: Chris Sparling
Cast: Rya Kihlstedt, William Mapother, Harry Groener, Jon Rubinstein, Sharon Maughn
Running Time: 83 minutes, Not Rated
Special Features: The Making of The Atticus Institute; Deleted Scenes
Available January 20th
The Atticus Institute is a documentary style horror film edited like a basic cable type of paranormal shows with interviews of Dr. West’s family and colleagues, along with footage involving an event that occurred in the 1970s.
After nearly 40 years, the secret experiments at the Atticus Institute have finally been released. Dr. Henry West (William Mapother) founded The Atticus Institute in the 1970s to test individuals expressing supernatural abilities like telekinesis, clairvoyance, and other psi-related phenomena. After a hoax derailed their testing, in 1976 they find a test subject named Judith Winstead (Rya Kihlstedt) showing extraordinary capability, albeit mentally unstable. The government gets wind of Judith’s abilities and they take control of the study and research facility. They hook her up to an electroshock device, keep her awake and restrained in a plexiglass cage, and torture her when she doesn’t cooperate. They then gas her when she gets out of control. Judith starts to reveal that her powers are a manifestation of some evil entity, and it’s getting stronger everyday. Dr West discovers the government’s plan to weaponize her ability, but can do nothing to help Judith. Her captors finally figure out too late that they’re in way over their head during their final experiment to try to transfer the entity into another host.
The Good: I like that the filmmakers strayed from the typical found footage film that gets pumped out every year. The acting was good and the story was engaging. It is one of those films that you have to watch more than once to connect some dots, but the “a-ha” feeling you get makes it worth it.
The Bad: Like a lot of documentaries, it dragged quite a bit with the interviews. I kept wanting to see more of the footage. However, the filmmakers seemed to be in a bit of a hurry to get to all of the crazy supernatural events rather than focus on some character development. We learn about Dr West, but who exactly was Judith? She slipped on some ice at age 35 and was injured really badly. She started reading weird books, alienated her sister and then became kind of manic depressive/bi-polar but with these psi-related abilities and able to defy the laws of physics…yeah okay. This may be a bit nitpicky, but I wasn’t impressed with the special effects used at the end of the film. The exploding heart and black blood/eyes were almost cartoony. There’s a side story that I kind of enjoyed, but felt it wasn’t accurate – when the one colleague talks about his nephew dying from electrocution because of a paperclip he found in Judith’s enclosure. I call b.s. because when I was 3 years old I stuck a staple in an outlet and was electrocuted and I’m fishfinger.
The Atticus Institute does have a good creep factor because they worked hard at making it look authentic. I was able to watch the film from beginning to end without taking a break or getting distracted. With exception to the lack of character development, I thought it was a decent horror film.
Acting: A
Story: B
Technical: B
Total Rating: B
Reviewed by: JM Willis
