The Institute

Looking at this new title on netflix im thinking ok this is not gonna be great but what the hell, i was bored. Saw 3 interesting names staring in the movie so i thought ok it might be good... WRONG!!! SO BAD, waste of time, bad acting, bad director. Low budget movie

Some of the worst acting I think I've ever witnessed.

If I had to guess, it is probably because James Franco fans watched it because he was in it, without knowing what to expect, and were unpleasantly surprised. It wasn't a terrible movie. It had been a while since I've watched it but the only reason I'm even on the IMDb page is because I was thinking about downloading it again to watch it with my wife (who doesn't like scary movies, but does like movies about crazy people, go figure) and she wanted to read some reviews. After reading the reviews, and then us downloading it and watching the movie anyway, I decided that I had to come back to let people know, I enjoyed it the second time, and my wife loved the movie (she wanted me to give it a 9) so I guess, make up your own mind. All I know is, the 4.0 rating doesn't do it justice!

This is my first review on IMDb, I created an account solely to vent about this movie. That's your first clue... As an avid fan of all things Horror, Thriller, Dark and Creepy, I was really looking forward to this film... however I was quickly disappointed. The concept of this movie is truthfully a good one, and it could have been great. It was however, poorly executed, the script was lifeless, boring and lacked any kind of depth. I was left laughing at certain points where they quite clearly should have been 'shocking' or 'creepy' but the whole thing felt a lot like I was watching a High School drama performance. The acting was mediocre at best and even with the big star cameos, it left a lot to be desired. The film was full of continuity errors, and generally easily fixed issues which would have added something to the non-existent atmosphere the film created. For example the film is set in the 19th Century, yet in a scene where the female lead is shown topless, you can quite clearly see her bikini tan lines. I'm not just talking a little, I'm talking she's just come back from a 3 week vacation. The 'climactic' scene left me laughing. All in all, don't waste your time - unless your looking for a film to fall asleep to or have a good laugh at then it'll be perfect!!

Hammy acting from renowned actors you'd expect more of. It wasn't laudanum they were ingesting but copious amounts of lithium to numb the brain thus restraining the urge to burst out laughing at every cliched, hackneyed and redundant theme in the plot line.

I hope I hammered that home.