Almost genuine enough you feel they could be real people. The military gets involved. The result was a boring, "flat", emotionless and BORING movie. Some good ideas hampered by an underwhelming execution, Apparently they still had 'found footage' back in the seventies. It's no fiction, Clinton even apologized for "the hundreds of thousands of civilians, mental patients, prisoners and military personnel abused by the government's in experiments" (among other projects the s.c "MK-ULTRA"). | Yet, he places lethargic bricks, one after the other, and cements them with an utterly boring mixture. It presents an interesting direction for possession subgenre with authentic documentary flair. On the other hand, it was quite an interesting way to have the story told to us. User Ratings They have the cast, they have adequate budget from what I see, HOWEVER, they had a poorly structured script, attempting to create a scary "documentary". It surprises me the low average rate this movie has. 'The Atticus Institute' is a documentary. The movie is very well paced. 4. The majority of these films feel contrite and fake at best. One of the the highlights for me is a soldier looking directly into the camera and saying, “Imagine being 22 or 23 years old, best shape of your life and armed to the teeth, and you’re scared of a lady that looked like she could have been your primary school teacher.” It really helped me dig into the story more. and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. The multitude of films out there that's not even watchable to the end about similar subjects are huge, yet many has got a higher rating. The Atticus institute was founded by Dr. Henry West (William Mapother) to study parapsychology and to test possible candidates with mental abilities. the 'documentary' footage is brilliantly done as are the scary lab scenes. Giving me a movie about possession where the military plays a bigger role than religion was a huge win for me. Awards 5. Only it isn't. So for that I applaud this movie. The film portrayal of titular institution goes beyond average found footage gimmick, its understanding of the presentation makes it as though audience is watching real documentary from science channel. I suppose it's like having a narrator, but of course a narrator in a horror film is a big no-no, so this was a way around it. Good pacing in this and the effects are practical for the most part and not over or under used. Chronicling the events of an institute, hoping to prove supernatural psychic abilities exist, and how they deal with their most proficient case study which may turn out to be more paranormal than first anticipated. The performances given during the “interview” scenes are very well done. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. These interviews can be tedious and predictable, especially … Pretty good mockumentary. The security cameras, considering this was supposed to be in the early 70s, were so advanced that they were able to capture audio to precisely inject loud jump scares. I would recommend this one. Early on, The Atticus Institute was kind of..meh. Frankly I am very fond of horror movies especially those involving demonic possessions based on true stories. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! Justifying the utilisation of this structure fully depends on the subject matter, it has to be captivating enough to make you want to know more and pay attention to the interviews. It let us get inside the mind of the characters and hear stories and insight we wouldn't otherwise have gotten. Above average mocumentary you'll wanna see more than once, Good story gone wrong by the way its made, 5 reasons to consider watching this movie, One of the best documentary type films i've seen, Nice mockumentary-styled effort but not a great horror effort. If some priest can walk in and simply make it go away whenever shit gets real….what’s the point?. The best thing that I liked about this movie was the way in which the story was told, shot more like a documentary, depicting events using recorded footage's. Me, as a viewer, did not manage to feel any sympathy for any of the protagonists, since they were only been interviewed like it was "the news at 10". In addition there were certain events in the movie which are based on true stories. The Atticus Institute nearly institutionalised me into an early nap. It's about the first 'government sponsored' institute which studies the paranormal. Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer. I didn’t care for the documentary style, but I got used to it. The Atticus Institute is perhaps the same type of film, but it does have a remarkably intriguing plot that separates it from the majority of these films. This films is basically a reviewing of archived Psychic experiments that went horribly wrong, but it is done so well at times you think its real, you can tell the budget was not huge but it didn't matter because they used it wisely almost to the point of brilliantly, so the story unfolds as an interview type documentary on several scientists while showing the archived videos of the experiments, a bunch of Psychic researchers do simple experiments on hundreds of subjects with little to no real definitive results, they are almost at the end of their funding when a woman walks in and volunteers for testing, she is barely coherent at times but in that very 1st day she proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Psychic abilities are real, in the process of showing the videos and talking about the events, they show the real Black and White videos of the Russian woman that proved she could move small objects with her mind (these video clips are real not part of the movie videos), but this woman that they are testing now is beyond any subject that has ever been tested, suffice to say, things turn from bad to worse real quick, there is real tension throughout the film, the acting is fantastic, the ending felt slightly rushed but over all this was great, it's different and it's scary at times because the story is told in a multi layered type fashion to add realism, the interviewer is asking questions to a person that was present, you see their reactions as they are responding and sometimes showing the actual videos as they are still explaining and then show their afterthoughts, it was great, that's my opinion, you see Hollywood spending $100 million plus of films that end up being crap and you see films like this that the story drives the experience at a fraction of the budget, story telling at it's best, I do have to say that I'm bias in the sense that Psychic powers and Psychic research type films has always interested me tremendously so on films like this one, Chronicle, Scanners or even The Fury 1978 are always going to receive a high score from me if done well, and all those films mentioned including this one are scores of 10 in my book. and the Terms and Policies, I like mocumentary style more than founded footage, but movie absolutely fails in realization. ‘Anonymous Animals’ trailer has arrived. Forgot your password? The group discovers that instead of just having abilities she may be possessed. Sometimes I exist as an adult. Well 'The Atticus Institute' certainly falls in that genre. So, when they start falling like flies it is more likely that you'll be cheering for the demon (who seems quite cool) than the boring humans... Like I said, the general idea of the movie was not bad. Production quality was fantastic for the style they were aiming for, though I feel like up until a certain point they were telling me more about the events than showing me. it's in a mockumentary style and it works so well that I kept forgetting this movie was not a documentary. And if you do control it, then who will be at risk?". Trying to recreate a famous encounter, a filmmaker interviews the participants involved in a research facility designed to study paranormal powers when the government got involved in one case where they wanted to turn one's powers into a military weapon. Admirably constructed, but the derivative script makes it difficult for one to become too enthused by the stock goings-on. I was not sure what to expect before watching this. I'm the kind of a horror movie viewer who wants the occasional scare but doesn't like too much gore or disgusting content. It’s not a very scary film, by any means, but it didn’t have to be. Don't waste your time watching movies which are just overrated.However people usually decided on their own opinion before watching a movie, but let me say this once - this better than most horror movies, yet i felt let down because i was really having highest expectations. The mockumentary style is something I enjoy if it is done well and isn't boring until the last 10 min. | Rya Kihlstedt did an excellent job playing the part of Judith as well – to the point where you start to care for her, especially right before the end of the movie. In the event, it turned out to be a pseudo-documentary. One good director and one good movie could sell anything, but you should really not trust trailers. | |