crazy soul experiment movie

• Drama Movies
• Movie Themes
• Sci-Fi Movies

The 13 Best Movies About Scientists and Experiments

If you buy something using our links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Scientific exploration represents the intellectual pursuit of the unknown. It's a quest for knowledge that has driven many to obsession or even madness, especially when failure looms increasingly overhead.

All kinds of films have been made about enigmatic characters who dedicate their lives to science and experiments. Such films tend to be sci-fi thrillers, but there are also compelling dramas and hilarious comedies that bring fresh energy to the premise.

Here are my picks for the best movies about scientists and their experiments, spanning the gamut of genres but all still worth watching for their own special reasons.

13. Junior (1994)

Directed by Ivan Reitman

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Emma Thompson

Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi (1h 49m)

4.7 on IMDb — 39% on RT

Directed by one of the best comedic directors in history, Junior is a cautionary tale of scientific experimentation if there ever was one.

Our story finds two scientists, Dr. Alex Hesse (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Dr. Larry Arbogast (played by Danny DeVito), who have created a new pregnancy drug to cure infertility.

Unfortunately, bureaucratic red tape threatens to derail the duo's experiment: due to ethical reasons, they can't test the drug on real human subjects. So, Alex decides to take the drug himself—and despite precautionary measures, even he couldn't predict what happens next.

Yes, that's right: we're kicking off this list with a movie about Arnold Schwarzenegger impregnating himself! Don't worry, as most of the other films on this list will be more serious. But if you're looking for an easy-to-watch comedy, don't let Junior 's poor critical reception deter you.

12. The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Directed by Robert Wise

Starring James Olson, Arthur Hill, David Wayne

Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller (2h 11m)

7.2 on IMDb — 67% on RT

Directed by Robert Wise, The Andromeda Strain is a classic film to watch if you're interested in movies about scientific experiments.

Dr. Jeremy Stone (played by Arthur Hill) is tasked with leading a team of scientists to contain the spread of an extraterrestrial organism that lands on Earth. However, it soon becomes clear throughout their experiments that they're way out of their depth...

Based on the phenomenal novel by sci-fi extraordinaire Michael Crichton, the film adaptation was lauded for its suspense and its creative use of split-screens long before it was widely used.

11. I Origins (2014)

Directed by Mike Cahill

Starring Michael Pitt, Steven Yeun, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey

Drama, Mystery, Romance (1h 46m)

7.3 on IMDb — 52% on RT

PhD student Ian Gray (played by Michael Pitt) is studying the evolution of the human eye. One day, while attending a college party, he meets a woman with the most beautiful eyes he has ever seen.

Later, several years in the future, what begins as a purely scientific study turns into something much more: an experimental investigation into the origins of the human soul.

Directed by the unconventionally meditative Mike Cahill, I Origins is an underrated sci-fi drama that's well worth your time.

10. A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Directed by Ron Howard

Starring Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly

Biography, Drama (2h 15m)

8.2 on IMDb — 74% on RT

Directed by Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind follows the life of Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. (played by Russell Crowe), who was a real person and commonly known as John Nash.

Demonstrating himself to be a brilliant scientist and economist, Nash not only gains the attention of the CIA, but eventually starts working there to help advance the field of cryptography.

However, paranoid delusions gradually start to blur the lines between his personal life and reality. Russell Crowe went on to win the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for A Beautiful Mind .

9. The Nutty Professor (1996)

Directed by Tom Shadyac

Starring Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Coburn

Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi (1h 35m)

5.7 on IMDb — 64% on RT

The second (and last) comedy on our list is another terrific adaptation of a classic piece of literature: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , which was written by Robert Louis Stevenson back in 1886.

Exactly 110 years after publication, Stevenson's novella was given a comedic spin with The Nutty Professor .

In a bid to win the heart of his dream woman, Sherman Klump (played by Eddie Murphy) is desperate to lose weight. So, he conducts an experiment using his vast knowledge of biochemistry.

While he does successfully lose an enormous amount of weight, it comes at a terrible cost... The Nutty Professor stars Eddie Murphy in an impressive seven roles, and it's a laugh-out-loud affair.

8. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Directed by Rupert Wyatt

Starring James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow

Action, Drama, Sci-Fi (1h 45m)

7.6 on IMDb — 82% on RT

Planet of the Apes started as a novel in 1963, which was turned into a film series in 1968, then rebooted into another film series in 2011 starting with Rupert Wyatt's acclaimed Rise of the Planet of the Apes .

Will Rodman (played by James Franco) is a chemist who's experimenting on chimpanzees with an innovative new serum that's one step closer to finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease. However, the serum has unforeseen effects on the primates...

Featuring Andy Serkis as ape leader Caesar using revolutionary performance capture technology, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is one of the best cautionary tales of science gone awry.

Remaking this iconic franchise was a risky decision given that there was a previous reboot attempt in 2001 with Planet of the Apes , which went nowhere due to all kinds of production difficulties. Fortunately, Wyatt pulled it off and the resulting series is just fantastic.

7. Hidden Figures (2016)

Directed by Theodore Melfi

Starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe

Biography, Drama, History (2h 7m)

7.8 on IMDb — 93% on RT

Directed by Theodore Melfi, Hidden Figures is a biographical film that brings us an incredible story that should've been told long ago. Fortunately for us, we get to experience it now.

The narrative follows three women scientists: Dorothy Vaughan (played by Octavia Spencer), Katherine Goble Johnson (played by Taraji P. Henson), and Mary Jackson (played by Janelle Monáe).

Despite their instrumental contributions to America's success during the Space Race, these women were buried and remained unrecognized for years. Why? Simply for being African-American.

Hidden Figures is the tough but inspiring journey of how these women worked to gain the respect that they deserved without ever giving up even in the face of constant discrimination and harassment.

6. The Theory of Everything (2014)

Directed by James Marsh

Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Tom Prior

Biography, Drama, Romance (2h 3m)

7.7 on IMDb — 80% on RT

Stephen Hawking is a man who needs no introduction, but in case you've been living under a rock for the past several decades, suffice it to say that he was one of the most brilliant minds of modern science.

In The Theory of Everything , we get to see his genius on display as he excels at the University of Cambridge, where he published all kinds of groundbreaking works on theoretical physics.

However, perhaps more interestingly, we're given insight into his tumultuous personal life and the challenges he faced as a victim afflicted by ALS (a neurodegenerative disease that affects muscle control).

With a heart-melting score and stunning performances from Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything truly encapsulates the human desire to understand the world we're born into.

5. Contact (1997)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Starring Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerritt

Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi (2h 30m)

7.5 on IMDb — 68% on RT

Based on the 1985 novel by Carl Sagan, Robert Zemeckis adapted the grounded sci-fi drama to great success.

Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway (played by Jodie Foster) is a SETI scientist who makes a breathtaking discovery: an alien transmission.

After establishing contact with extraterrestrials using radio waves, Arroway leads an experiment to create a machine according to the instructions of said extraterrestrial communicators.

While Contact is mostly interesting for its thought experiment of a premise than its characters, the result is still one of the most intriguing movies about a scientific experiment. If you're in search of a realistic take on sci-fi concepts, you can't miss this one.

4. Annihilation (2018)

Directed by Alex Garland

Starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson

Adventure, Drama, Horror (1h 55m)

6.8 on IMDb — 88% on RT

When writer-director Alex Garland is at the helm of a film, you know you're in for an experience unlike any other. He's had his ups and downs, but when he's hot, the results are unforgettable.

Annihilation follows a group of women scientists of varying fields who are tasked with investigating the origins of a supernatural entity that has arrived on Earth. The thing is, previous explorers either haven't returned or have come back changed in some way...

Starring Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh, they venture into the enigmatic quarantined zone called "The Shimmer" to collect data and uncover what's causing the mutation of plants and animals.

With Annihilation , Alex Garland successfully crafted another worthy entry into his filmography and the cosmic horror canon.

3. The Imitation Game (2014)

Directed by Morten Tyldum

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode

Biography, Drama, Thriller (1h 54m)

8.0 on IMDb — 90% on RT

Cryptanalyst Alan Turing is well-known today as the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, but that wasn't always the case. In fact, he was ostracized while he was alive for being gay.

In this superb film directed by Morten Tyldum, we get to see the fantastic legacy he left behind, as well as his role in ending one of the most gruesome conflicts in history: World War II.

During WW2, the Nazis communicated using messages that were encrypted by their Enigma machine. Alan Turing was approached by British intelligence officers in 1939 and hired to break the Enigma codes, as he was the only one with enough expertise to do it.

Benedict Cumberbatch's performance as the man who almost single-handedly decided the fate of World War II with his brilliant brain is both insightful and gut-wrenching.

2. Awakenings (1990)

Directed by Penny Marshall

Starring Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner

Biography, Drama (2h 1m)

7.8 on IMDb — 84% on RT

Penny Marshall's drama Awakenings isn't just well-written, well-acted, and emotionally affecting—it's based on a true story.

Dr. Malcolm Sayer (played by Robin Williams) is a neurologist studying catatonia. When he begins implementing a new treatment of L-DOPA in coma patients, he's initially disappointed by the results. However, there's eventually a breakthrough when one patient suddenly wakes up.

For the first time in years, Leonard Lowe (played by Robert De Niro) is able to see the world through his own eyes again.

As Dr. Sayer uncovers the reason behind Leonard's sudden awakening, the two of them fear that this experiment may not last. In fact, it may very well be a race against the clock. In the end, Awakenings is an underrated gem that will absolutely have you in tears.

1. Oppenheimer (2023)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon

Biography, Drama, History (3h)

8.5 on IMDb — 93% on RT

Why is Oppenheimer at the top of this list? Maybe it's recency bias. Or maybe it's the massive cult-like following the film had pre-release. Or maybe it's the glowing reviews that came after its release.

All combined, Oppenheimer still sticks out in my mind as the best film about a scientist and his experiments.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy) is a brilliant theoretical physicist who's headhunted to lead a team of scientists tasked with creating the world's first atomic bomb.

Oppenheimer is tense and suspenseful as director Christopher Nolan employs his trademark nonlinear narrative style to create total immersion in Oppenheimer's race against time and persecution.

The film is doubly effective as a cautionary tale, which is why I'm ranking it at number one. Oppenheimer is cinema's best depiction of a scientist haunted by his greatest achievement and tormented by his own legacy.

Oppenheimer's most impressive experiment came at massive cost: the fate of the entire world. Few films have managed to establish stakes so monumental and deliver a climax worthy of said stakes.

How ‘Evil’ Recreated the 21 Grams Science Experiment From the Early 1900s

By Jazz Tangcay

Jazz Tangcay

Artisans Editor

• Gravitas Ventures Acquires North American Rights to Sci-Fi Feature ‘Roswell Delirium’ – Film News in Brief 10 hours ago
• Elphaba’s Dress in ‘Wicked’ Was Inspired by Mushroom Gills 2 days ago
• 2K Motion Capture Studio Workers File for Unionization 3 days ago

The third season of Paramount+ series “ Evil ” returned on June 12, and the show is darker than ever as it continues to straddle the worlds of science and religion.

For the season opener, production designer Ray Kluga transformed an airport hangar in New York into a space for a group of scientists to experiment on dead bodies. The idea was to measure the weight of a soul, a question that goes back to the early 20th century when scientist Duncan MacDougall determined the weight lost after death was 21 grams.

Kluga’s biggest challenge was in envisioning what a century-old experiment in the modern world would look like. The ethically questionable measurement was never repeated, so he was free to let his imagination run. “I was trying to have a vintage sci-fi design, particularly with the casketlike box that sits in the middle of the room,” he says.

Related Stories

Disneyland Price Hikes Show Disney’s Faith in Planned Expansions for Reigniting Demand

Sacha Baron Cohen Revives Borat to Mock Trump and Tell Kamala Harris: 'You're a Woman, a Person of Color and Married to a Jew. I Advise You Not to Come to Kazakhstan'

The area was painted stark white, reflective of a cold scientific space. Pops of red and yellow were added to some piping on the walls. The main color would come from the red jackets worn by the scientists and observers.

Popular on Variety

Kluga laid sensors strategically on the floor that are lit up in red when the group of scientists has a body to work on. “Those were done with the help of CGI,” he explains. “We laid out four to five rows and the rest were duplicated by CGI.”

The control room swings into action when a patient on the verge of dying is brought in.  Newly ordained priest David (Mike Colter), forensic psychologist Kristen (Katja Herbers) and David’s adviser Ben (Aasif Mandvi) are all on hand to witness this experiment.

The control room was built on another stage and was pasted in via VFX. “We wanted a mad-scientist feel to the room,” Kluga says.

The designer adds that because series creator Robert King enjoys working in tiny spaces, the experimentation room needed to conform to those specifications. “It was very small and tight,” he says. “Just when I thought I had made it small enough, the walls came in another two feet — everyone was cheek to jowl.”

Kluga promises scientific spaces come into play a lot more this season as the storylines evolve. “Without giving too much away,” he says, “there’s a science club that I built that’s a wacky, hipster version of science.”

More from Variety

‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol’ Previews Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride’s Long-Awaited On-Screen Reunion in Next Episode

Late-Night TV vs. YouTube: Data-Driven Tips on Which Is Better for Celebs Promoting Films

‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Season 2 Sets Spring 2025 Premiere at AMC, First Teaser Reveals Maggie and Negan’s Return

NBC Plans Special ‘Tonight Show’ to Air After ‘Sunday Night Football’ on November 17

‘Until Dawn,’ ‘Silent Hill 2’ Remakes Show Relevancy of Retreading IP

‘Sunday Night Football’: How to Watch Dallas Cowboys vs. San Francisco 49ers Live Online

More from our brands, beyoncé endorses kamala harris at houston rally: ‘we’re all part of something much bigger’.

This Hyatt Heir’s Massive L.A. Estate Has Nearly 20 Fireplaces. Now It Can Be Yours for $195 Million.

Intuit Dome Opens With Clipper Foes up Against The Wall

The Best Loofahs and Body Scrubbers, According to Dermatologists

Is Tracker Going Sci-Fi? Was DWTS Donkey Disturbing? Was Chicago Med Doc a Perfect Ken? How Touching Was Blue Bloods Gift? More TV Qs!

• The Magazine
• Stay Curious
• The Sciences
• Environment
• Planet Earth

The Man Who Tried to Weigh the Soul

In 1907, a Massachusetts doctor named Duncan MacDougall performed an unusual series of experiments. Intrigued by the idea that the human soul had mass, and could therefore be weighed, Dr. MacDougall put together a bed fitted with a sensitive set of beam scales, and convinced a series of terminally ill patients to lie on it during the final moments of their lives.

MacDougall was nothing if not detail-oriented: He recorded not only each patient’s exact time of death, but also his or her total time on the bed, as well as any changes in weight that occurred around the moment of expiration. He even factored losses of bodily fluids like sweat and urine, and gases like oxygen and nitrogen, into his calculations. His conclusion was that the human soul weighed three-fourths of an ounce, or 21 grams.

It’s hard to imagine these experiments getting any serious attention from the scientific community today. But the lines of thinking that led to them — and the reactions they generated — remain with us to this day.

A Year in the Spotlight

The results of MacDougall’s study appeared in  The New York Times  in March 1907. The article set off a debate between MacDougall and the physician Augustus P. Clarke, who “ had a field day ” with MacDougall’s minuscule measurement techniques.

Clarke pointed out that at the moment of death, the lungs stop cooling the blood, causing the body’s temperature to rise slightly, which makes the skin sweat — accounting for Dr. MacDougall’s missing 21 grams. MacDougall fired back in the next issue, arguing that circulation ceases at the moment of death, so the skin wouldn’t be heated by the rise in temperature. The debate ran all the way to the end of 1907, picking up supporters on both sides along the way.

For four years, all was quiet on the MacDougall front, but in 1911 he graced The New York Time’s front page with an announcement that he’d upped the ante. This time, he wouldn’t be weighing the human soul — he’d be photographing it at the moment it left the body.

Although he expressed concern that “ the soul substance  might become [too] agitated” to be photographed at the moment of death, he did manage to perform a dozen experiments in which he photographed “a light resembling that of the interstellar ether” in or around patients’ skulls at the moments they died.

MacDougall himself passed away into the interstellar ether in 1920, leaving behind a small band of ardent supporters, along with a far larger group of physicians who seemed incredulous that this farce had gone on so long. Members of the public settled down on one side or the other, and the discussion fell off the radar.

Except that it never really did — at least not completely.

A Legacy of Oddity

References to MacDougall’s experiments continue to spring forth in pop culture every few years, from the Victorian era right up to today. The idea that the soul weighs 21 grams has appeared in novels, songs, and movies — it’s even been the title of  a film . Dan Brown described MacDougall’s experiments in some detail in his adventure yarn  The Lost Symbol .

Mention the soul-weighing experiments to a person who’s into parapsychology, and you’ll likely hear a murmur of approval; after all, the idea of scientific proof for the soul offers comfort in much the same way that tarot readings and hotline spiritualists do. Even among more skeptical folks, it’s a topic that comes up now and then in late-night discussions: “Wasn’t there once a guy who tried to weigh the soul…?”

The experiments’ actual results, and their failure to achieve acceptance as scientific canon, are entirely beside the point. Science has gone one way, and pop culture another. Functional neuroimaging has tied every conceivable function once associated with the soul to specific regions and structures of the brain. Physics has mapped the linkages between subatomic particles so thoroughly that there’s simply no space left for spiritual forces.

The idea of weighing the soul remains with us. It’s romantic. It’s relatable. It speaks to some of our deepest longings and fears that gripped MacDougall’s readers back in 1907 and still captivate us today.

A Different Kind of Eeriness

To understand why MacDougall wanted to weigh the soul — and why he thought he could — it helps to understand the environment in which he operated. His work is rife with terms and ideas recognizable from early psychological theorists Freud and Jung. There’s a lot of talk about “psychic functions” and “animating principles” — a grasping for the precise scientific language to describe consciousness, and life itself, in a world still ignorant of fMRI and DNA.

We’re still profoundly ignorant today, as any honest scientist will tell you. Certain behaviors of quantum particles still baffle the brightest minds; and we’re still a long way from understanding exactly how our brains do most of what they do. We keep looking for the dark matter that constitutes more than  80 percent  of the universe’s mass, but we haven’t actually  seen  a single atom of it or know where, exactly, it is.

And in all these dark corners, we still find people looking for the soul. Some claimwe’ll eventually discover it among quantum particles.  Others insist  it’s got something to do with the electromagnetic waves our brains generate. Most scientists reject these claims. But these researchers and theorists soldier on, unwilling to give up hope that one day we’ll be able to weigh, measure and quantify the hereafter.

MacDougall’s work resonated, and continues to resonate, not because of what he found (or failed to find) but because of what he  suggested . The simple idea behind the experiments was appealing, and for many who followed the debate in  The New York Times , that idea alone was enough to make MacDougall’s work worthy of discussion.

But in 1907, as today, the real, testable, verifiable universe continually proves to be much stranger than anything parapsychology can dream up. How are photons both particles and waves and yet somehow neither? How can there be so many planets in our galaxy, yet so few that harbor life — we think — as we know it? The universe is full of real unsolved mysteries, whose real answers are out there somewhere.

We don’t need the souls of the dead to craft a haunting series of experiments. The measurable, physical universe is more than eerie enough.

• brain structure & function

Already a subscriber?

Register or Log In

Keep reading for as low as $1.99!

Sign up for our weekly science updates.

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Island of Dr. Moreau

After being rescued and brought to an island, a man discovers that its inhabitants are experimental animals being turned into strange-looking humans, all of it the work of a visionary doctor... Read all After being rescued and brought to an island, a man discovers that its inhabitants are experimental animals being turned into strange-looking humans, all of it the work of a visionary doctor. After being rescued and brought to an island, a man discovers that its inhabitants are experimental animals being turned into strange-looking humans, all of it the work of a visionary doctor.

• John Frankenheimer
• Richard Stanley
• Ron Hutchinson
• David Thewlis
• Marlon Brando
• 197 User reviews
• 61 Critic reviews
• 37 Metascore
• 2 wins & 10 nominations

Top cast 24

• Hyena-Swine

• Sayer of the Law

• M'Ling
• (as Miguel Lopez)

• Sow Lady #1

• Sow Lady #2

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia According to rumor, after the studio fired original director Richard Stanley , he convinced the makeup crew to turn him into one of the background mutants, so he could keep tabs on the making of his dream project. He supposedly did not unmask himself until the wrap party. In his autobiography, Val Kilmer mentioned Stanley would yell at him between takes in dog-man make-up, and Kilmer could recognize his voice but not place him among the many extras.
• Goofs Surely after learning that a beast person had removed his implant, Montgomery would have informed Moreau, in which case security measures at the compound would have been tightened. At the very least, Moreau would have known not to rely solely on his remote for protection.

Edward Douglas : Are you a doctor?

Montgomery : Well, I'm more of a vet.

• Alternate versions The director's cut contains 4 extra minutes of footage including an expanded intro in the Java sea, a more gruesome end for 'The Father', and other small enhancements
• Connections Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Bogus/The Big Squeeze/Bulletproof/The Trigger Effect/The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)
• Soundtracks Night Bird Written by Eric Mouquet and Michel Sanchez Performed by Deep Forest Courtesy of 550 Music/Epic By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User reviews 197

• Mar 11, 2014
• How long is The Island of Dr. Moreau? Powered by Alexa
• August 23, 1996 (United States)
• United States
• Hòn Đảo Quái Nhân
• Queensland, Australia
• New Line Cinema
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $40,000,000 (estimated)
• $27,663,982
• Aug 25, 1996
• $49,627,779

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 36 minutes
• Dolby Digital

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.

The 20 Best Movies About Human Experiments

7. The Skin I Live In (2011)

Pedro Almodóvar’s Spanish psychological thriller based on Thierry Jonquet’s novel “Mygale” follows Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), a plastic surgeon working on “GAL”, a resistant artificial skin which is unaffected by insect bites or burns.

At a medical symposium, he privately confides to a colleague that he has not only been testing mice, but has also been conducting illegal transgenic experiments on humans, after which, he is prohibited from further research.

Despite being forbidden, Ledgard continues his work with his loyal servant, Marilla (Marisa Paredes) and his experimental subject, Vera (Elena Anaya). Vera is held captive in a locked room which contains a television, hand-knit dolls, yoga equipment, security cameras, and a wall plastered in her handwriting.

Many of Almodóvar’s trademarks like obsession, confusion, sexual identity, gender ambiguity, secrets, betrayal and death, combined with his ventures into new genres like science fiction and horror lead to a refined melodramatic classic with a vengeful core. Inspired by Georges Franju’s “Eyes Without a Face” and Fritz Lang’s thrillers, the heart-throbbing pace of the screenplay and the earnest exposition stories of the characters lead to the puzzle of the film slowly being solved.

With each line of dialogue spoken and every character’s movements; the audience works out, piece by piece, everything that happened before, everything that is happening now, and everything that motivates the characters to do what they do.

Typical of Almodóvar, the film’s design, costumes and colour are beautiful and uniquely stylistic thanks to his frequent collaborators – production designer Antxon Gómez and cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, together with Alberto Iglesias’ suspenseful music creates an intense, clinically chill feeling that is unusual for Almodóvar, but nonetheless fitting.

It premiered at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, and won Best Film Not in the English Language at the 65th BAFTA Awards. It was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and 16 Goya Awards.

6. Night and Fog (1955)

Alain Resnais’ French documentary short acts as a lasting reminder of what human beings are capable of doing to one another. The first film to truly address the Holocaust, it was only made ten years after the liberation of Nazi concentration camps.

Resnais collaborated with scriptwriter Jean Cayrol, a survivor of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in order to truthfully document the Nazi’s atrocities and inhumanity. The thirty-two minute film attracted a lot of controversy and faced difficulties with French censors, especially when trying to enter Cannes.

Narrated by Michel Bouquet, the documentary attempts to describe the rise of Nazi ideology and its quick escalation from thought to action to sadism that included torture, scientific and medical “experiments”, executions, and prostitution.

The diffusion of responsibility, blame and denial are at the film’s core as Resnais and Cayrel question who was responsible for these atrocious horrors. They show how many people involved in the death camps didn’t know how to deal with their own guilt and complicity or didn’t want to.

Juxtaposed black-and-white archival footage of concentration camps and their victims in pastoral colour footage of the buildings and locations ten years later, Resnais used stock footage from France, Belgium, and Poland, but conspicuously not from Germany, and chillingly alternates between past and present.

The film documents skeletal nude corpses being hung, it shows how the Nazi ‘s utilised the victims’ remains as much as possible, it bears witness to the gas chambers and crematoriums, and even includes footage of the dead being bulldozed into mass graves.

5. Das Experiment (2001)

Oliver Hirschbiegel’s German thriller film based on Mario Giordano’s novel “Black Box” and Philip Zimbardo’s 1971 Stanford prison experiment follows Tarek Fahd, a taxi driver who finds a newspaper advertisement calling for participants for an experiment with a compensatory pay of 4000 German marks.

Tarek becomes interested not only for the cash payment, but also sees the experiment as a potential story since he used to be a journalist. He pitches the idea to his ex-boss, who reluctantly agrees and provides Tarek with a pair of glasses with a built-in mini-camera.

The social experiment is led by Professor Klaus Thon and his assistant, Dr. Jutta Grimm. Attempting to see how provided ‘roles’ change people’s behaviours and mentalities, they stimulate a prison situation in which they split their 20 volunteers into two groups; guards and prisoners.

In the experiment, the prisoners lose their civil rights and have to obey arbitrary rules like only wearing nightshirts, only referring to one another by their provided prisoner number (Tarek is prisoner number 77) and they must obey the guards’ orders.

The guards are given nightsticks, but are told not to use violence. Within a couple of days, the situation escalates as psychological changes develop as the guards become excessively aware of their power and manipulate the prisoners’ fear of humiliation.

Heavily inspired by the famous Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971, the film was remade in America in 2010 by Paul Scheuring and stars Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker. Both of these films utilise some aspects of the real experiment and dramatise others, such as Tara being a journalist with videotaping glasses.

Probably the film which has remained the most true to the original social experiment is the recent 2015 American thriller, self – entitled, “The Stanford Prison Experiment” starring Billy Crudup, Ezra Miller, and Michael Angarano.

4. Eyes Without A Face (1960)

Georges Franju’s French horror adaptation of Jean Redon’s novel follows Dr. Génessier (Pierre Brasseur) who does everything he can to attempt to fix his daughter’s, Christiane’s, (Edith Scob) face, after it is horrifically disfigured in an automobile accident that he caused.

He experiments on his pet dogs to work on possible treatments while his daughter’s face remains hidden by an expressionless, stiff, white mask that covers everything but her eyes and resembles her face before the accident.

Dr. Génessier’s loyal assistant, Louise (Alida Valli), grooms young women with similar facial structures to Christiane into following her to Dr. Génessier’s house (and attached clinic). The two kidnap and chloroform the women and perform heterograft surgeries on them to try and restore Christiane’s face. However, following several unsuccessful attempts, Christiane becomes even more depressed as her life outside fades away.

Franju’s quietly absurd horror is poetically brutal refuses to cut away from the graphic images as he brings life to the stock characters of a mad scientist, his assistant, and his monster in a strangely sensitive and incredibly cerebral way.

The only foray into horror genre by the cofounder of the Paris Cinematique, the film has influenced several directors and films, including Spanish director Jesús Franco “The Awful Dr. Orloff” (1962) , the Italian film “Atom Age Vampire” (1961), the British film “Corruption”, (1968), John Woo’s action film “Face/Off” (1997), Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Skin I Live In” (2011), as well as influencing John Carpenter’s  expressionless mask for the Michael Myers character in the slasher film series Halloween.

3. La Jetée (1961)

Chris Marker’s French science fiction short film is narrated by an unnamed man (Davos Hanich), who is a prisoner in the aftermath of World War III in a post-apocalyptic Paris.

Scientists are researching time travel in order to reconstruct their society and experiment on the protagonist, whose psychological link to the past is a vague pre-war memory of a beautiful woman (Hélène Chatelain) on the observation platform at an airport, shortly before some chaos arises and a stranger is mysteriously shot.

The experimenters utilise him and send him on multiple trips to the past and attempt to send him to the far future so as to find powerful technology which might help them in their present.

Constructed almost entirely from still photos and diffusing transitions, the twenty-eight minute black-and-white featurette relies on sound design, visually economic photographs, and emotional narration.. It won the Prix Jean Vigo for short film and went on to inspire Terry Gilliam’s 1995 science fiction cult classic “12 Monkeys”.

2. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Stanley Kubrick’s most controversial film based on the dystopian 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess’s , was withdrawn from the United Kingdom by Kubrick himself for nearly thirty years due to its heavily criticised response.

The social sci-fi fable follows delinquent Alex De Large (Malcolm McDowell), a charismatic intelligent youth who gets a kick out of pornography, breaking the fourth wall, Beethoven and going on vivid, random rampages of “ultraviolence” with his bowler hatted, Doc Martin wearing, white overall-clad gang of “Droogs” (buddies).

Their vicious conquests include crippling strangers, raping defenceless women while singing renditions of “Singin’ In The Rain”, breaking into homes, getting intoxicated on drug-ladened “milk-plus”, and just beating up anyone who happens to pass by.

Eventually, Alex gets caught for one of his crimes and goes to prison. However, two years into the sentence, he gets the opportunity to become a test subject for the Minister of the Interior’s new Ludovico technique, an experimental aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals within two weeks and then released.

Similar to behaviour modification techniques like Watson’s Classical Conditioning or Skinner’s Operant Conditioning, Alex is strapped to a chair, has his eyes clamped open, injected with drugs, and forced to watch nauseating films of sex and violence coincidentally set to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, his favourite one.

The conditioning treatment is successful and leaves Alex unable to engage in any sexual thoughts or violent actions, even in cases of self-defence. The prison chaplain complains Alex has had his free will stolen from him and that he is has not chosen to be good and asserts that goodness can only come from within.

However, the prison governor states that the Ludovico technique will cut down crime and help prevent prison over-crowding. Alex gains his freedom back, but at the cost of becoming dangerously ill every time he tries to act violently, thinks of a woman sexually, or listens to his blessed Beethoven.

Stanley Kubrick described the film as “…A social satire dealing with the question of whether behavioural psychology and psychological conditioning are dangerous new weapons for a totalitarian government to use to impose vast controls on its citizens and turn them into little more than robots.

This bold, thought provoking satire of society’s hypocrisy, corruption and sadism stylistically analyses institutionalised brutality and the fragility of individuality and personal rights in a startlingly funny way.

The extreme wide-angle lenses and blended classical and synthetic soundtrack provide a nightmarish aspect the film that is brilliantly punctuated with rhythmic utilisation of fast and slow motion that effortlessly stylize the violence and sex scenes, due to their off-beat pacing.

The film was nominated for several awards including Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, best Film Editing and Best Picture, as well as BAFTA nominations acknowledging the art direction, cinematography, and soundtrack. McDowell was also nominated for a Golden Globe for his chilling portrayal as Alex.

1. Frankenstein (1931)

James Whale’s Pre-Code horror classic based on the play by Peggy Webling, which in turn is based on Mary Shelley’s novel of the same name), follows Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), a young, overachieving scientist, who, together with his hunchbacked assistant Fritz (Dwight Frye), steals human body parts and pieces them together to form a new body for piece together a human body that they can experiment on.

Frankenstein longs to create life, not only for the benefit of science, but to know what it feels like to be God. He finally succeeds with a crash of thunder, sparking electrical machines and chilling lightning as his built-together body finally comes alive (Boris Karloff). However, Fritz mistakenly gave the body a criminal, murderous mind and hysteria results.

Considered to be a cornerstone of the genre, the film’s iconic look is still being replicated today. Universal’s make-up genius, Jack Pierce, devised the monster’s unique appearance, with his electrified flattop hairstyle, neck bolts, heavy eyelids, elongated scarred hands and shoulder-padded, shabby suit that seemed to predict 80s fashion, managed to make him appear scary, but also translated the monster’s naivety and innocence.

The monster ironically evokes sympathy due to the horror mainly coming from people’s fierce hysteria and fast-paced judgement.

Karloff’ starred in the next two sequels, “Bride Of Frankenstein” (1935) and “Son of Frankenstein: (1939). Frankenstein’s story also continues in, “The Ghost of Frankenstein” (1942), “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man” (1943), “House of Frankenstein” (1945), and many more, including Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein” (1974) . Kenneth Branagh also remade this film in 1994 with Robert De Niro starring as the monster.

Author Bio: Susannah Farrugia is an undergraduate Psychology student at the University Of Malta. Her life is measured in films and television shows. She enjoys drawing scenes and designing posters based on the films she has seen.

10 Replies to “The 20 Best Movies About Human Experiments”

A Clockwork Orange (1971) Men Behind the Sun (1988) Martyrs (2008) The Human Centipede (2009) Experimenter (2015) The Stanford Prsion Experiment (2015)

Experimenter (2015) is actually very good! I liked that movie.

I’d also site A Clockwork Orange.

Also, for what it’s worth, Bruce Joel Rubin’s original screenplay of Jacob’s Ladder didn’t include the, imo, wholly unnecessary, military conducting experiments upon soldiers unwittingly via violence-enhancing hallucinogenics to advance (or explain away) the plot, or muddy it up, depending upon one’s take on it! …considering that it’s essentially a story about the human soul’s brief time between earthly existence and the afterlife.

Initially, the story was more overtly rooted in Christian themes, iconography and metaphysics (Dante’s Inferno, Meister Eckhart, winged angels, fire and brimstone, etc) but when it was decided to remove the more obvious Heaven and Hell references and imagery and instead make those elements more symbolic and suggestive, the military drugging soldiers shtick, although an unfortunate fact of how the military operates, was likewise brought to the table to help make the already-confusing-to-American-audiences story of Jacob’s Ladder a bit more cohesive/palatable for audiences accustomed to Large Print stories (the screenplay was written in the 1970s, and no studio would touch it for many yrs)

Don’t get me wrong–the plot still works with that 11th hour military bit added in while not completely ruining the central spiritual gist of the story …but after knowing that Rubin’s org screenplay was much broader in scope, and even creepier–Jake’s subjective experience was initially going to accompany the biblical Apocalypse, with all of NYC turning into a Hades–the whole military/drugging angle seems like an clunky, unnecessary red herring of sorts that wasn’t needed to explain to audiences what was happening to the protagonist. For those interested, Rubin’s screenplay–along with many of his ruminations on writing the story–is, or used to be, available in paperback book form.

<<o. ★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★:::::::!!be425p:….,..

Does this book have the same name? Sounds interesting.

‘Altered States’ ??

<<o. ★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★✫★:::::::!!be201p:….,….

Top 2 should be Shutter Island and The Skin I Live In.

Please, please edit your lists before they are published. There are many good lists here that I won’t share because of typos and mistakes. Makes the site look like amateur hour.

I hope people who create word games and other internet activities that require English words, see your comment. Because I am an educated adult, I usually immediately recognize misspelled words. But what about the young learner and those just learning to read? There are a good many people who accept the written word as “gospel.” Whatever one writes for the general public should ALWAYS be correctly spelled!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .