Das Experiment - 2001 * * 1/2

I'm not really sure what to make of this film. It's the terrifying and captivating story based on a real experiment that took place in 1971 of a group of men who volunteer for a prison experiment where their characteristics and actions will be studied by CCTV camera. The only catch is that one half of the group are chosen to act as guards and the other to act as prisoners. What starts off as a bit of a joke for the men who are hoping to make a bit of extra cash turns into a hellish nightmare as the 'prisoners' are degraded and humiliated by the now drunk on power 'guards.' It's absolutely terrifying to see men who go into this experiment as friends turn on each other because of their positions of power and submit each other to psychological and ( in the end) physical abuse despite one of the rules being that no violence is to be used. Even scarier perhaps is that many of these men have hidden sadistic tendencies which are freely explored throughout the film simply by being placed in a different environment. If I'm honest I didn't think much about this film immediately after I had seen it but nearly 4 days later and I'm still thinking about it and it chills me to the bone.