A Thriller Based on an Unethical True Tale Trapped Behind Streaming Bars

You can completely understand why the creative minds behind The Stanford Prison Experiment stuck with the project through a dozen years of being stuck in development hell, because the harrowing true story is absolutely one that needed to be told in a feature film setting.

Taking place in the summer of 1971, participants were plunged into a two-week simulation of being incarcerated, with scientists monitoring variables and behavioral changes along the way, and a princely sum of $15 per day being paid to those willing to sign up. The subjects were randomly assigned as either prisoners or guards, but it wasn’t long before all hell broke lose.

Unrelentingly brutal for the entirety of its duration, the titular experiment has long since cemented its place in the history books as one of the most infamously unethical psychological studies of all-time, and it deservedly led to an overhaul of the requirements needed for even the most vaguely similar of successors.

Bolstered by a talented cast of young stars that numbered Ezra Miller, Tye Sheridan, Michael Angarano, Logan Miller, and many more besides, The Stanford Prison Experiment may not have set the box office alight, but it found plenty of critical acclaim for the way it deftly handled such a harrowing moment in modern history.

Utterly engaging from first to last, the underrated and sorely overlooked movie has now found itself trapped behind bars on streaming, with FlixPatrol naming the nerve-shredding descent into despicable actions as one of the most-watched titles on iTunes over the weekend.

via IFC Films

You can completely understand why the creative minds behind The Stanford Prison Experiment stuck with the project through a dozen years of being stuck in development hell, because the harrowing true story is absolutely one that needed to be told in a feature film setting.

Taking place in the summer of 1971, participants were plunged into a two-week simulation of being incarcerated, with scientists monitoring variables and behavioral changes along the way, and a princely sum of $15 per day being paid to those willing to sign up. The subjects were randomly assigned as either prisoners or guards, but it wasn’t long before all hell broke lose.

Unrelentingly brutal for the entirety of its duration, the titular experiment has long since cemented its place in the history books as one of the most infamously unethical psychological studies of all-time, and it deservedly led to an overhaul of the requirements needed for even the most vaguely similar of successors.

Bolstered by a talented cast of young stars that numbered Ezra Miller, Tye Sheridan, Michael Angarano, Logan Miller, and many more besides, The Stanford Prison Experiment may not have set the box office alight, but it found plenty of critical acclaim for the way it deftly handled such a harrowing moment in modern history.

Utterly engaging from first to last, the underrated and sorely overlooked movie has now found itself trapped behind bars on streaming, with FlixPatrol naming the nerve-shredding descent into despicable actions as one of the most-watched titles on iTunes over the weekend.