Chilling, impactful and utterly unforgettable, The Stanford Prison Experiment is an unmissable reminder that truth is always stranger - and more fascinating - than fiction.

| Oct 4, 2021

An outstanding cast and a compelling true story that outdoes Lord of the Flies in exploring how quickly humans can lose their humanity.

| Oct 4, 2021

The Stanford Prison Experiment is an utterly gripping, chilling narrative...

| Oct 4, 2021

It's an important film to watch for anyone interested in criminal justice, social justice or simply the psychology of roles.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 24, 2020

[Alvarez] does an excellent job encapsulating the intense, dehumanizing, and claustrophobic nature of the experiment. [July 10, 2018]

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 22, 2019

Shelton's excellent cinematography goes a long way in keeping the claustrophobic, oppressive mood going, mainly by shooting the tight, cramped and dull office settings with a wide Cinemascope ratio.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 3, 2019

While it sometimes drags on in certain places and becomes repetitive in its showing of the actions taken by the guards, the film still stands well enough and is able to explore the ugly side of humanity that is very revealing.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 2, 2019

The Stanford Prison Experiment isn't so much a period thriller as it is a modern horror in '70s clothing, vividly confronting its audience with the depths the human soul can plunge to, given the right circumstances...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 29, 2019

The Stanford Prison Experiment isn't fun, but it is engrossing, and it provides fodder for thought (and perhaps even self-reflection) a long time after it ends.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 7, 2018

The reenactment is ugly and affecting, attention shifting from member to member among the excellent ensemble cast; Tim Talbott's script is streaked with an awareness of privilege that a lesser movie would have neglected.

| Aug 28, 2018

The uneven film ran out of gas way before it crossed the finishing line.

| Original Score: C+ | May 1, 2018

The scariest part is that viewers vicariously become Dr. Philip Zimbardo, hotly anticipating what happens next before coming to their senses realizing how inhumane this is, how far it has gone, and that it needs to stop

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 3, 2017

The most fascinating parts of the film depict the experimenters themselves, who are equally quick to abuse the power they have given themselves over the lives of others.

| Oct 11, 2017

The Stanford Prison Experiment lives and dies by the quality of the performances, because there is very little else in the film.

| Oct 9, 2017

Authentically tense and sweatily claustrophobic.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 27, 2016

Crudup's Zimbardo shifts from ruthlessness to panic, but that shift isn't nearly as marked as what we observe among his subjects.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 9, 2016

Crudup excels as Zimbardo, casually sliding into the role of evil prison boss so subtly that we almost don't realize what's happening.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 14, 2016

Based on real events, this sharply well-made film shifts from a rather light-hearted comedy into a horrific thriller. And it feels unnervingly natural as it does so.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 17, 2016

Cranking up the tension by gradually moving his camera in closer and closer to his actors, Alvarez smartly shrinks the distance between them and us in order to intensify the what-would-you-do? discomfort the experiment was designed to explore.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 12, 2016

The film runs out of steam by about the half way mark, where matters of unequivocally passed through the gates of Hell.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 10, 2016