The Atticus Institute – Teuflische Experimente (2015)

The Atticus Institute – Teuflische Experimente: Directed by Chris Sparling. With Rya Kihlstedt, William Mapother, Sharon Maughan, Harry Groener. When the US government attempts to weaponize the power of a possessed woman, they soon discover that there are forces that exist in this world that simply cannot be controlled.

“u0026#39;The Atticus Instituteu0026#39; is a documentary. Only it isnu0026#39;t. Itu0026#39;s one of those films that is shot like one, yet scripted – I think they call them a u0026#39;mockumentary.u0026#39; Iu0026#39;ve seen the genre before and they can be pretty entertaining; normally theyu0026#39;re quite funny and this one is supposed to be scary. Itu0026#39;s about the first u0026#39;government sponsoredu0026#39; institute which studies the paranormal. The story is about the facilityu0026#39;s first u0026#39;genuineu0026#39; patient with paranormal abilities.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTherefore you get a load of u0026#39;talking headu0026#39; interviews shoved in every few scenes. Itu0026#39;s set in the seventies, so all the scenes u0026#39;recordedu0026#39; back then are nice and grainy, while the u0026#39;interviewsu0026#39; are supposed to be filmed with modern cameras, therefore being clearer in picture quality. Yes, both sorts are well-filmed. The overall effect is certainly one of watching a documentary on past times. Only the interviews totally take you out of what little scary mood has been created (and thereu0026#39;s not much of that to begin with). Whoeveru0026#39;s being interviewed basically tells you a bit about what happened back in the past and then we see what theyu0026#39;ve already said in grainy u0026#39;stocku0026#39; footage.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo, everything thatu0026#39;s going to happen is first told to us by an interviewee. And you can probably guess whatu0026#39;s going to happen anyway. Once the institute gets its first u0026#39;realu0026#39; person with psychic abilities then you know itu0026#39;s going to go wrong for them. And it does. Only it doesnu0026#39;t really crank up the mood to anything because itu0026#39;s being told to us in retrospect and you sort of already know whatu0026#39;s happened because itu0026#39;s all taken place already (thatu0026#39;s assuming you couldnu0026#39;t guess what happened anyway).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd, what few scares are in here arenu0026#39;t that scary. The lynchpin of any u0026#39;found footageu0026#39; film is that it doesnu0026#39;t have much of a budget. And it shows here. Basically, if you like horror films, there are better. And, if you like u0026#39;found footageu0026#39; films then youu0026#39;ll probably have seen better also.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePlus thereu0026#39;s a British actress who plays one of the doctors who completely overacts every time sheu0026#39;s interviewed. She wound me up.”