6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Subjected to bizarre and increasingly violent pseudo-scientific experiments in personality modification, brainwashing and mind control, Isabel Porter must escape the clutches of the Rosewood Institute and exact her revenge, or else be forever lost.
Starring: James Franco, Pamela Anderson, Josh Duhamel, Eric Roberts, Lori SingerHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
It’s hard not to watch The Institute and think of other films with heroic if troubled women trying to survive in the “wilds” of a state mental institution. The Snake Pit and (especially) Frances posited headstrong women suddenly thrust into a near feral “society” in a madhouse where lunatics run rampant and the doctors supposedly in charge of healing the patients come off as half crazed themselves (again, more in the case of the highly fictionalized version of Frances Farmer’s life than in the Olivia de Havilland film). Much the same approach is taken in The Institute, a film, which like Frances, is supposedly based on true events. (Anyone who has read my debunking of many of the elements in Frances will know where I stand on that whole “based on a true story” statement.) It’s hard to believe that anything along the lines of what is depicted in The Institute actually took place, but the film does have a brief coda supposedly documenting at least some nefarious activities that took place in Baltimore’s real life Rosewood Institute, which is the ostensible setting for the film. That actual activity seems limited to human trafficking (at least as evidenced by what is presented in the coda itself), something that is at least alluded to in this film, whereas the “real” villainous activity in The Institute is so over the top and ultimately kind of absurd that I suspect few will be wondering (as I did long ago as a young man first seeing Frances and believing it all to be true), “How could this possibly have happened?”
The Institute is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Momentum Pictures with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The film's closing credits list the RED Camera, but this presentation is a good deal softer than is typically seen in digital captures with RED technologies, something that I am assuming was a deliberate stylistic choice. The entire film is kind if gauzy looking, an aspect that is only increased by a tendency to shoot directly at effulgent light sources where there can be effulgent glows around characters and where at times whites tend to bloom (you can see some examples in screenshots 2, 9 and 12). That, coupled with a lot of material that takes place in very dimly lit and at times downright dark environments, tends to keep fine detail levels at least slightly tamped down. The palette also looks slightly desaturated most of the time, another (presumed) stylistic choice that is perhaps meant to evoke 19th century photographs. The prevalence of dark sequences can also reveal a smattering of noise (see screenshot 19). In some of the less frequent brightly lit outdoor sequences, detail levels rise considerably even if the palette continues to look a bit on the wan side.
The Institute features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which regularly places individual effects rather nicely throughout the surround channels, whether or not the film is outdoors, where ambient environmental sounds predominate, or (more frequently) in the cloistered confines of the Rosewood Institute itself, where somewhat spookier sounds emanate. The film is refreshingly free of jump cuts with attendant booming LFE, and so this tends to be a more subtle listening experience than many horror infused outings. Dialogue and score both resonate clearly, and prioritization is well delivered on this problem free track. For the record, Momentum has also included a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track as well.
There are no supplements included on this Blu-ray disc.
I seem to be in a kind of rut with a bunch of recent titles in my review queue, all of which had really interesting foundational elements, but none of which ever really fully exploited them or delivered a completely satisfactory viewing experience. The Institute is another film stuffed to the gills with undeniably fascinating concepts, but instead of concentrating on the idea of control and gender roles, the film tips over into an almost gonzo plot that seems to be even further divorced from "based on a true story" than Frances was — and (for me anyway) that's saying a lot. Fans of Franco may want to check this out, since the actor also co-directed, and for those folks, technical merits are generally very good.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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