Starring: William Mapother, Rya Kihlstedt, Harry Groener, John Rubinstein, Sharon Maughn.
Director: Chris Sparling.
The Atticus Institute is a newer horror flick released earlier this year. I did see it somewhere, somehow, a few months back but I feel like I wasn't paying enough attention to really fully grasp it. I remember really liking some of the scares, and it's presentation of the found-footage device was actually pretty well done. The idea of a found footage movie that was made out of old security cam and paranormal research facility logs forty years ago is also interesting to look at. I prefer the documentary format to normal found-footage.
We have a pretty simple story, and that's fine. Reinventing the wheel really isn't necessary at all. Forty years ago there was a research facility where they tested for ESP and the like, and a Woman walks in who is possessed. We have a documentary that details what occurred, told by people who were there.
It's actually pretty well done, really. It's easy to forget that these people doing talking head bits for this "documentary" are dramatic actors performing lines, and that's pretty impressive. The structure of the narrative is expertly done: it feels just like a documentary and you quickly forget you're watching fiction. It's actually doing to be kinda difficult for me to analyze this one, actually...and maybe that's a credit to the film. It actually might be brilliant: the documentary format allows you to hide negatives extraordinarily well.
There are well-crafted scare scenes. The build-up is solidly done and solidly paced. The recordings of her sleeping, then bouncing to rooms that have nothing occurring in them, and suddenly all hell is breaking loose and the innocent grad student ran for it.
I'm glad to see William Mapother and Harry Groener getting more work. They're very fine actors. Mapother was the menacing Ethan on "LOST" and Groener The Mayor on "Buffy:The Vampire Slayer." Great actors, great roles. They're limited in characterization-especially considering Groener is relegated to talking head reactions to scenes he's not in and Mapother gets small bursts of screen time-but they give a lot with the little they're given.
I don't know how SCARY a lot of the scenes are, but they're really well executed and look amazing, especially with the old-timey seventies filters on everything. It's more fascinating than frightening, but that seems to certainly be the point. Intrigue, not terror. And it IS intriguing, mostly, but it can't quite seem to keep its pace up. I find myself easily distracted while watching it. It's not keeping my focus. Every so often, though, they pull things together into really strong scenes, usually punctuated by a strong performance choice by Rya Kihlstedt or Harry Groener. Kihlstedt is great, by the way. Again, it's a completely physical performance with little to no character, but she nails it every time.
Oh, I always love the idea of the Government thinking it can use some sort of monster/alien/demon/whatever as a weapon or intelligence gathering device. It's always so dumb, too. But, maybe it's kinda realistic? I suppose the military or whatever really would try to use a demon to fight their enemies...or maybe they've seen enough movies to know better. I like the statement of "If those other encounters were real, I assure you, the government would have intervened," though. That makes a lot of sense to me.
That's an element that, I don't think, has ever been used in a film before or since, actually. Government becoming involved in a demonic possession? It's always the church or whatever, but never really science. Now I'm racking my brain to see if I remember one. I guess some of the "Exorcist" sequels did, in a way, but even that wasn't the government. So I don't think it's been done? I feel like maybe in an hour I'm gonna just yell "Oh, wait, THAT one" but for right now I can't think of one. So, that's clever.
I guess I had zoned out, because I was shocked when someone said "Now we knew that they wanted to weaponize it all along" and I just said "Well, duh." I thought they had said that out loud already, but I guess not.
Ah, here we go. Wouldn't be a possession film is a priest didn't show up. Honestly, I kinda wish he hadn't. I would have liked to see this "Science vs. Possession" thing go to its logical conclusion. That would be a pretty interesting thing to see. I'd like to see that as a regular horror movie, though, not a mockumentary or a found-footage film. One that isn't The Lazarus Effect. Again, no government involvement, really, but still "science vs. possession."
Despite the movie supposedly being about Mapother...not a lot of time is actually spent seeing what he was up to. I think, in the end, this movie suffers from getting carried away with itself. It's also, unfortunately, a bit dull in places. It's a shame, because so much of the actual content is so well done and well constructed. So, it has moments of greatness in a movie that is otherwise merely passable.
Final Rating: I'm gonna go ahead and give it three stars. For the effort.
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