The film has an interesting concept based off some urban legend. However, any scene outside the room of the experiment itself fell a bit flat.

The final act of the film completely loses sight of what made it interesting in the first place. We didn't need a 15 minute exposition scene to tell us that the guy in charge of the experiment is sinister. We see the experiment first hand well enough to understand its sinister intent. Come on now the audience isn't this stupid.

The movie could have taken place near entirely within the walls of the experiment room. It would have contributed greatly to the claustrophobia and mania. Instead it keeps giving us uninteresting police interview scenes that take away from the experience more than add. The prisoners can't get out of the room, or sleep, why should the audience get a break?

When I found out a movie had been made about the Russian Sleep Experiment horror story, I was ecstatic. This is one of my favorite horror stories. I knew this had to be one I watched.

Immediately, the movie details from the source material focusing on the lead scientist and his interview with detectives about the experiment. We focus more on a story instead of experiencing the study. The scenes outside of the experiment fell flat for me. Neither party seemingly interested in what is happening throughout with exceptions.

The scenes inside the experiment were where the film shined. They were closer to the source, while still deviating. The acting inside of the experiment scenes were also more engaging following these 5 men and their lack of sleep.

Sadly, at the climax the movie decides to deviate entirely from the source material. If you do not want spoilers, avoid the rest of this.

Once they remove the men from the experiment that is it. The film focuses fully on the head scientist who is revealed to be the true psychopath. The film decided to ignore the source material and focus on the more boring aspect. In the original, it has a heavy focus on the last remaining survivor and their total descent into insanity. Instead, our last survivor is not insane and is just mentioned to have succumbed to infection.

Sadly, the ending of the film ruined it all for me as a fan of the source material. It was so disappointing to not see it focus on the insanity of the survivor and the effects the study truly had. It could have been so much better.

All in all, it was a solid watch. For those that don't know the original, they may like it more. In my opinion this is just another director that decided they wanted to make their own choices instead of staying true to the outline provided. A disappointing theme in modern media.

Who was the burn victim that was the detectives dad? Who were the 9 people that died? They said 2 soldiers and the people in the experiment. This movie was weird and not really in a good way. The main psychopath psychiatrist would be a great voice actor for a vampire film tho. Overall, it had moments that were chilling visually. The story was interesting. Lots of details and things fell apart in the end of the days. I gave it a 2 because I've seen worse psych patients films. This movie reminded me of the crazy and horrible tests done under the doctors of the Holocaust. It was interesting but not the best I've seen.