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The Experiment
Metascore
60 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 19 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 19
  3. Negative: 1 out of 19
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  1. New Times (L.A.)
    Reviewed by: Bill Gallo
    80
    En route, we also get a chance to examine the nature of the self and the responsibilities of science. Das Experiment has all this and more, excitingly packaged as a prison movie featuring superb performances and high emotional tension.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    What impressed me is how effective the movie was, even though the outcome is a foregone conclusion. That's a tribute to the director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, and the actors, who have been chosen with the same kind of typecasting that perhaps occurs in life.
  3. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Megan Lehmann
    75
    One of those all-too-rare cases in which a riveting premise is expertly executed.
  4. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    75
    Because the confrontations between power and powerlessness are so dramatic and because Hirschbiegel's editing is so emphatic, Das Experiment is practically over before you realize that you don't know what its point is, exactly.
  5. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Curiel
    75
    Disturbing film.
  6. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Ray Conlogue
    75
    This is a grimly thrilling movie that falls somewhere between clear-eyed realism and the improbabilities of an action flick.
  7. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    75
    There's not enough insight to the social phenomenon presented onscreen, but that doesn't make the utterly human horror of this thriller any less unsettling.
  8. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ed Halter
    70
    After the film's ultraviolent finale (set to the tacky beats of synth-pop volksmusik), one wonders whether this sharp bit of fascinating fascism provides a true analysis of television's new mean streak, or simply an engaging indulgence in same.
  9. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    70
    As an exploitation picture, Das Experiment is mindlessly potent; subtitles are no guarantee of sophistication and subtlety.
  10. Variety
    Reviewed by: Derek Elley
    70
    A solid slice of entertainment without reaching the psychological depths promised by the subject matter.
  11. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    67
    Doesn't tell you anything about human nature you probably haven't already suspected, but then again it's good to be reminded of these dark things from time to time. Especially these days.
  12. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Janice Page
    63
    This cacophonous ending may serve to reinforce the filmmakers' cynical themes, but it leaves viewers trying desperately to remember the part of the film that had brains, wit, and so much promise.
  13. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    60
    First-time feature filmmaker Oliver Hirschbiegel maintains a riveting sense of simmering brutality.
  14. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    60
    It's empty calories trying to trumpet its bogus nutritional value, and the strain for social importance undermines the picture.
  15. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not credited)
    60
    The film's hysterically pitched action overshadows its more subtle psychological points.
  16. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Loren King
    50
    For all its slickness, is an R-rated version of "Survivor," "Big Brother" or any number of reality-TV shows that present voyeurism as entertainment and exploitation as insight.
  17. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    50
    Eventually any serious statement is lost in a sea of sadism, as he forces us to watch scene after scene of gruesome, humiliating torture.
  18. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    42
    Rigid, airless, and browbeatingly repetitive, Das Experiment is an overly didactic piece of thesis hectoring; it's like ''Lord of the Flies'' set in a Skinner box.
  19. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
    30
    Too much of a mess to say anything with assurance, pieced together as it is from mismatched institutional movies such as "Cool Hand Luke" and "Shock Corridor" -- with "Lord of the Flies" thrown in for good measure -- and turning on plot points that simply don't wash.
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