SHOCK looks at 10 films where man is the guinea pig.
Back in the day, pretty much every pill, ointment and serum was tried and tested on cells and animals grown in labs but things are a changing and more drug trials than people care to admit have been or are being performed on us humans.
The fact a frighteningly significant percentage of the worlds population is willing to go to alarming extremes for fame and fortune, and with medical corps offering hefty sums to tinker with our tenements, serial guinea pigging is becoming a more attractive “career option for the stone broke side of society. Whilst I’m utterly against this entire notion, it’s unfortunately understandable why more and more people are jumping on the lab rat bandwagon as pros are making in excess of $ 50,000 a year; and thats without mentioning free food, accommodation and whatever else it takes to twist a guinea pigs arm.
With all this going on in the real world, movies involving outrageous acts of science inflicted either on unwitting victims or scientists willing to risk the rashness of their research cut frighteningly close to the bone, making for quite the disquieting experience.
So, just to trigger the white coat hypertension in all of us, SHOCK gets clinical with this list of 10 superb scientific shockers.
1. MY LITTLE EYE (2002)
A prime example of money being the best lab rat bait known to man is the macabre psychological Big Brother thriller MY LITTLE EYE.
Director Marc Evans and writer David Hilton slyly skewer the current golden age of voyeurism we live in by sliding the behavior of five unsuspecting guinea pigs under the microscope as they house share for six months with their each and every move simulcast for some kind of sick and twisted reality show. All five contestants are competing to win one million dollars in prize money but theres always a catch, right? If just one person leaves the creepy ass house before the six months are up then no one wins.
The disparate characters are excellently cast making the whole plot resonate that much more as we get to see the chemistry, or lack thereof, play out between them as The Company chucks bloody spanners in the works to try the contestants patience and gradually turn them against one another.
What really sucks the audience in though is the deft use of webcams throughout to create an eerily realistic fly-on-the-wall aesthetic, slipping the audience right into the minds of whatever kind of sick, tormented people might be up for a nights entertainment of this macabre variety.
2. DAS EXPERIMENT (2001)
Based on the novel Black Box, which itself was based on the true story dubbed the Stanford Prison Experiment, German director Oliver Hirschbiegels DAS EXPERIMENT relates the tale of 20 male volunteers who, via a newspaper ad, willingly accept to take part in an inmate/prison guard role-playing game in a mock prison to study the effects of authority and obedience. The rules are simple: inmates must follow a few simple prison rules whilst the guards have to retain order without resorting to any form of physical violence.
As its a film, things are destined to end in chaos but the fact of the matter is that the events run creepily close to what actually went down in Stanford back in 1971. In a nutshell, as harmless as everyone seems at first, everyones inherent psychological susceptibilities surface at a horrifyingly alarming rate and anarchy soon reigns supreme. To make matters worse, as the guards are given strict orders not to physically harm inmates, its not long before they devise increasingly macabre ways of quelling prison subordination.
Ultimately, DAS EXPERIMENT provides one almighty wakeup call as to just how big a role our surroundings play in shaping our behaviour, and how dangerous even the biggest softie could become, should the circumstances so require.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gXnAHfVcKY
3. THE ATTICUS INSTITUTE (2015)
Chris Sparlings directorial feature debut, The Atticus Institute was certainly one of the better supernatural yarns released last year, working that much more effectively given the fact it focuses heavily on the medical side of the supernatural when a small psychology lab in Pennsylvania becomes the unwitting home to the only government-confirmed case of possession.
Using stock photographs, archival footage and cunningly convincing talking-head interviews Sparling forges an astounding sense of authenticity. These interviews are paramount to reeling us in and the unfamiliar faces and the conviction with which they recall the events adds immeasurably to tricking us into believing every word that comes out of their mouths.
William Mapother is fantastic as the leading member of the medical team but its Rya Kihlstedt who absolutely astounds as Judith, and her shyness and solitude couldnt be any more unsettling. She might be poles apart from THE EXORCISTs Regan but by no means is she any less chilling.
Whilst the shock quota gradually increases throughout, Sparling seems to have been far more interested in creating an engrossing and substantially believable story. If thats what he was going for then he absolutely nails it. The sheer fact that a story dealing with possession can be as believable as this is pure testament to Sparling`s resourcefulness and the talents of his more than credible cast.
4. RE-ANIMATOR (1985)
Stuart Gordon’s brash riff on the Frankenstein fable is, at least for me, one of the greatest Grand Guignol movies ever made.
Cue shady new student Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) whose classroom cockiness, scientific fervor and adamance at keeping his good self and the Grim Reaper mutually exclusive proves quite the macabre mixture. Determined to beat death, he synthesises a radiant green serum that can bring his patients-cum-victims back to life but, unfortunately, not back to serenity.
Perfectly juggling the grue with a sanguine sense of humor that serves up some of the most quotable lines in history, RE-ANIMATOR is science at its most insane and inhumane, cementing it as one of THE best horror movies the 80s had to offer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCGGG_NvE4g
5. Bernard Rose’s FRANKENSTEIN (2015)
From one riff on the Frankenstein mythos to another, we come to Bernard Roses reinvention of the wheel for the modern generation which highlights the perils of frighteningly plausible cloning technologies.
Whilst remaining shrewdly faithful to Shelleys original novel and using passages from the book to serve as Adams (Xavier Samuel) inner voice, Roses re-imagining of the monsters physical features deviates somewhat from what we are used to so as to run abreast with todays technologies: gone is the patchwork skin in favour of Adams beautiful and perfect complexion until cancerous blemishes begin to appear the perfect analogy of a destructive cancer eating away at Adams inner and outer self. The other game-changer Rose adds to the pot is Adams invincibility which brings a never-before-seen angle to the Frankenstein story.
Its adaptations of this variety that keep Frankensteins grotesque yet sentient monster well and truly alive even now, almost two centuries after Shelleys original masterpiece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BryyqzDUCvc
6. THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (FIRST SEQUENCE) (2009)
Prepare yourself for 90 minutes of uninterrupted unpleasantries as Six rattles our tomophobic foundations.
The premise for whats considered as one of the most grotesque films of all time found life by chance when writer-director Tom Six cracked a joke with friends suggesting a certain child molesters mouth should be stitched to the ass of a very fat truck driver as punishment.
The rest is horrifying history.
Much like RE-ANIMATORs Dr. West, highly-regarded surgeon Dr. Heiter wont give up until he successfully performs the ultimate surgical procedure: creating a human centipede by connecting three people via their gastric systems.
Hats off to the three extremely brave actors, Akihiro Kitamura, Ashley Williams and Ashlynn Yennie for taking on such challenging roles but its Dieter Laser who pips them to the post as the delightfully nefarious Dr. Heiter.
And whilst pretty much every boundary in the book is crossed in THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE, the reason most audiences and critics didnt write it off as just another torture porn movie was Sixs deft decision to avoid horror clichés like the plague so as to keep audiences invested in such a stark raving bonkers premise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si9qhpLRKFY
7. SYNCHRONICITY (2015)
This mind-bending slice of sci-fi noir just goes to show how a little money and a lot of creativity can go a very long way.
SYNCHRONICITY finds physicist Jim Beale (Chad McKnight) prepared to use himself as a lab-rat to prove hes perfected a machine which provides him a passageway through a wormhole into alternate dimensions.
Whilst time travel films have been done to death, whats so uniquely special about SYNCHRONICITY is the top-notch cast, particularly Brianne Davis as McKnights love interest/Achilles heel, and the films ever-growing intrigue as writer/director Jacob Gentry knows just how to fox you before pulling you back in before foxing you once again and so on and so forth.
It might sound quite irritating, and if you are just after a bit of quick popcorn entertainment then this aint for you, but the intertwining narrative loops are exquisitely constructed and certain to entice you back for viewing after viewing; always the sign of a great flick, so dont be too eager to write this one off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmLZY1UDO1Q
8. FLATLINERS (1990)
I dont want to die. I want to come back with the answers to death and life.
Director Joel Schumachers meta medical shocker found 90s brat-pack, Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon playing death defying medical students as they perfect an almost lethal cocktail of drugs and goose-bump inducing body temperatures that sends them into a temporary brain dead state before being brought back to life to tell the tale.
Being the investigative medics they are, their instincts get the better of them of course and a pissing contest ensues with the team knocking that little bit harder on deaths door by gradually increasing the time spent between the living and the dead.
The longer they stay under, the more profound a sense of guilt they experience while flatlining and, by exploiting the protagonists deep, dark sins to the hilt, Schumacher and scribe, Peter Filardi forge a satisfyingly offbeat and shuddersome psychological shocker.
9. THE FLY (1986)
Just as Bernard Rose worked his magic with FRANKENSTEIN, Cronenberg successfully revamped the rather crude 1958 version of THE FLY for the new generation, creating something that would change the world as we know it.
In a rather exuberant attempt to elude a bad case of motion sickness, scientist Seth Brundel (Jeff Goldblum) develops a telepod which, on paper, can transfer matter through space. Gaining the attention of a local reporter, Veronica (Geena Davis), its not long before he cant resist the temptation to try his creation out on himself and, with the help of a bug with the worst timing ever, a brand new species is born: the Brundlefly.
Whilst the film could have stuck firmly to the clichéd creature-feature formula, what makes THE FLY such a stunning shocker is Cronenbergs deft direction that gradually wraps its wings around the audience as we find it impossible not to warm to the ill-fated scientist; a sensation that is elevated tenfold by Veronicas undying emotions for Seth even in his most decayed state. Youre not human if you dont find yourself empathising with Cronenbergs creature that manages to scare the crap out of you whilst finding your soft spot at the exact same time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BzwxJ-M_M0
10. SUPER SIZE ME (2004)
Whilst all the above are essentially fictional – some allegedly based on real events – self-experimenting to beat all self-experimenting comes sans scientist, namely in the form of documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock.
In a mad/brave attempt to expound the toll fast food takes on our bodies Spurlock lays down an even bigger gauntlet for himself than any member of the Jackass team would even dare to, enjoying 3 square meals a day at McDonalds over the course of 30 days. Oh, and if he gets asked if he wants to supersize his order the only answer he can give is a great big yes.
Whilst it didnt sound SO dangerous on paper, thank God he went through this ordeal under the supervision of a General Practitioner, a gastroenterologist and a cardiologist as its not too long before he starts feeling a tightness in his chest, his blood pressure shoots for the stars and his liver literally begins to shut down.
The fact that a filmmaker is prepared to go to such extremes to prove a point, and hopefully steer us towards a healthier way of living, SUPER SIZE ME is a prime example of how REAL horror can also serve as one of the most effective wake up tools in any filmmakers arsenal.
