The Atticus Institute

The Atticus Institute-720P

The Atticus Institute-480P

The Atticus Institute-360P

The Atticus Institute-720P

The Atticus Institute-480P

The Atticus Institute-360P

source: The Atticus Institute

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. While this one was indeed quite enjoyable there's some rather prominent flaws on display. Among the biggest issues here is the actual method of filming this one which presents the film with several immediate problems. There's the main issue of this one cutting away from the story continuously in order to get the talking head interviews and their own personal accounts of what happened that doing so in this manner causes the film to be so start/stop in terms of its pace that it really can't generate much in terms of atmosphere or suspense when it has to cut away when something's interesting to come back to these. It' gives this a pretty disjointed feel when everything turns back into the interviews rather than letting the story play out as it normally would, which is another problem here. This one goes for brief inserts recreating what happened that are quite hard to make out the point of when they just spend the entire time going nowhere with the storyline as they don't lead up to anything except the next talking-head interview, and there's little to be gleaned from that type of structure. The other issue here is that it's highlighting how uneventful the first half of this one is where they go into the research institute's background and history with its' patients before getting her there as none of this is really all that involved in getting this one going along at an inviting pace with the main purpose of the film appearing so late into here since all of the lead-up time is taken on setting the stage here with not just the interviews but the footage shot documenting the very same thing we just heard them talk about. It lastly has the small problem of highlighting the fact that it spends the first half not knowing whether she's just gifted psychically or possessed, as if it can't make up it's mind what the actual cause is which makes for a slightly disappointing effort when it's not all that clear what's going on. Still, this one isn't all that bad as there's some good stuff involved here with the surprising feat of it not being all that boring at all, keeping this one moving along at a nice enough pace that there's not a whole lot really worth skipping over or just ignoring, blazing through here with a rather impressive pace that keeps this one going along rather nicely. That's due to the nice action at times here with some rather fun times showcasing not just her powers but also getting rather fun with the military intervention that comes along with all the different tortures they inflict on her and the powers they coax out of her which gradually leads into a rather fun time with what it's all leading to. Enhanced by all the off-stage accidents and testimony given earlier, it's all quite a bit of fun and leads to a great finish here that's quite chilling and enjoyable. These here make this good enough to matter, but it's still rather flawed. Rated R: Violence and Language.

It surprises me the low average rate this movie has. 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. I don't know if the crowd watching this "low/middle-budget" film are expecting more blood and guts or what? This is quite a scary movie in the way that it deals with a subject actually practiced on a large scale by the CIA in the late 60-mid 70's. 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"). There is a lot of lies flying around the net about these experiments, but what makes this movie interesting is that even Reagan admitted to consulting mediums and (I don't really know the American term for it) "far-seers", people who claimed they could see Soviet activity from USA through their minds, and had used it for his decision-making. That's more than a bit worrying, and it's basically what this movie deals with. It's a well made movie, scary for those knowing what dealing with the occult from a "scientific" point of view (or any other) could result in. The actors all do a credible job, and it deserves being watched. One of the better movies on this subject made.

I think the promo for this film spoiled it a little in telling you upfront that this is about possession and the military's attempts to use the powers that are released. That aside, the build up to the shocks is great. We see what the researchers think is the world's first real case of telekinetic powers then the realisation that dark forces are at work...by then it's too late. Very believable documentary footage, all the government people were brilliantly cast...if you'd stumbled across this half way through you'd think it was a real doc for a while! The only thing that I had reservations about was the treatment of Judith. OK, once the military are involved in something then that's it...they can do what they like and nobody is held accountable...but the doctor claims to care about her and treats her like an animal...it just didn't sit right with me.