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The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Thriller · Drama · History · 2015

In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.

Movie details

The Stanford Prison Experiment

“They were given 2 weeks. It lasted 6 days.”

2015 Thriller · Drama · History 2h 2m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.8 / 10

47.6K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

84 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

67 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.8 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Stanford Prison Experiment?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Martha Marcy May Marlene

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After several years of living with a cult, Martha finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy, for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted, but the memories of what she experienced in the cult make peace hard to find. As flashbacks continue to torment her, Martha fails to shake a terrible sense of dread, especially in regard to the cult's manipulative leader.

Nightwatching

Nightwatching

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Fight Club

Fight Club

Drama · 1999

A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.

Extremities

Extremities

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A woman escapes from the man who is about to rape her, but leaves her purse behind. Afraid that her attacker might come after her, she goes to the police, but with no proof of the incident, they can do nothing. In fact, the man does use the information in her bag and comes to her apartment with the intent of rape, but she sprays him in the face with insect repellent, and then holds him captive. She is then faced with deciding whether to go to the police who might not believe her and release him, or to kill him.

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974

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Yorkshire, 1974. Fear, mistrust and institutionalised police corruption are running riot. Rookie journalist Eddie Dunford is determined to search for the truth in an increasingly complex maze of lies and deceit surrounding the police investigation into a series of child abductions. When young Clare Kemplay goes missing, Eddie and his colleague, Barry, persuade their editor to let them investigate links with two similar abductions that draw them into a deadly world of secrecy, intimidation, shocking revelations and police brutality.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Kyle Patrick Alvarez

Written by

Tim Talbott

Billy Crudup

Billy Crudup

Dr. Philip Zimbardo

Michael Angarano

Michael Angarano

Christopher Archer

Ezra Miller

Ezra Miller

Daniel Culp / Prisoner 8612

Tye Sheridan

Tye Sheridan

Peter Mitchell / Prisoner 819

Olivia Thirlby

Olivia Thirlby

Dr. Christina Maslach

Nelsan Ellis

Nelsan Ellis

Jesse Fletcher

Moisés Arias

Moisés Arias

Anthony Carroll

Court is in session

Put The Stanford Prison Experiment on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.