The Atticus Institute
Tags: paranormal

Plot synopsis:
The story of the film is presented in documentary format, with footage of the events punctuated by interviews with people related to them.
In the early 1970s, Dr. Henry West (William Mapother) founds the Atticus Institute in rural Pennsylvania, hoping to find evidence that proves supernatural abilities such as ESP are real. Despite the best work of West and his aides, however, every subject that comes to the institute seeming to display such abilities are ultimately proven to be frauds. The team is demoralized in their work by the time Judith Winstead (Rya Kihlstedt) is brought to the institute by her sister Margaret, who is troubled by her disturbing behavior. Judith immediately proves to be a different case than the previous subjects, passing all the tests with incredible proficiency and leaving no doubt that her abilities are genuine. Her behavior remains erratic, however, and many of West's staff become uncomfortable with her, even while their boss's fascination with her increases. With the usual tests proving to be no challenge for Judith's incredible power, the team gradually introduces new tests that show her to possess even greater abilities than first imagined.
Judith's behavior grows more unstable as her abilities evolve, disturbing West's staff. Bizarre events begin to happen to the aides and their families outside of the institute, which they suspect Judith is somehow influencing, and many of them resign from their positions to escape from her. As the situation escalates, the team seeks help from the United States military; under the influence of military advisors, they conduct new tests that lead to Judith manifesting new abilities such as telekinesis and pyrokinesis. One day, Judith experiences a violent reaction to a spectral photography experiment, and when the images are checked, a cloud-like entity is observed temporarily leaving Judith's body during her convulsions. This leads the team to realize that Judith's powers are the result of demonic possession.
With this discovery, the military seizes full control of the institute under a pretext of national security, and the situation spirals completely out of control. Soon, the military decides that Judith's abilities can be utilized as a weapon against the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and they begin conducting increasingly inhumane experiments on Judith against West's objections. Using methods such as electroshock therapy, the military try to tame the demon and force it to cooperate in exercises such as identifying the location of enemy bases, ignoring the effects these tests have on Judith. As these experiments ultimately prove fruitless, the military decides to try removing the demon from Judith by having a priest perform an exorcism while a soldier is connected to Judith via machinery. The process shows promise at first, but Judith suddenly lashes out and gravely injures the priest, disconnecting the electrodes attached to her before passing out. As the staff try to reattach the electrodes, Judith experiences a violent seizure while the demon attacks West through the body of the soldier connected to her. An unseen force blasts through the facility, killing all present. As the cameras come back online, Judith - now free of the demon's control and restored to her true self - breaks down when she sees the carnage around her. The demon enters the room in West's body, having fully consumed his soul, and stands before Judith's cell as she pleads for help. West kills Judith by telekinetically bursting her heart, then calmly exits the room and disappears.
The film concludes with a note revealing that Judith's body was buried in an undisclosed location following an autopsy, and her case remains the only instance of possession officially certified by the United States government. Dr. Henry West, after disappearing on October 23, 1976, was declared legally dead in 1982 and his whereabouts have been unknown for over forty years.

Review: Before long the government get involved and things go increasingly badly wrong.The film-makers have taken some care to present this in a manner that replicates an actual documentary.
To this end we have lots of talking heads footage involving people who were connected to the story and there is also retro looking filmed material as well as stills.
It's one of those films that is shot like one, yet scripted – I think they call them a 'mockumentary.' I've seen the genre before and they can be pretty entertaining; normally they're quite funny and this one is supposed to be scary.
And, if you like 'found footage' films then you'll probably have seen better also.Plus there's a British actress who plays one of the doctors who completely overacts every time she's interviewed.
Now, about the least scary thing I can possibly think of watching is a documentary, and that stands true here.
I suppose it's like having a narrator, but of course a narrator in a horror film is a big no-no, so this was a way around it.
I don't think we'll ever see any big-budget horror films adapt this documentary style, but it was an interesting concept to see done here in a lesser-known film.There are one or two moments of quality horror to be found, where suspense was drawn out of the scene.
Those who watch it won't be disappointed, it's above average as far as some of the garbage horror films Hollywood is putting out these days, but ultimately they won't be blown away by it either..
And if you do control it, then who will be at risk?"You like to watch documentaries about the supernatural, alien sightings or other unexplained phenomena on "National Geographic", then you should see "The Atticus institute" since this is a documentary-style film about a scientific study in an institute led by Dr. Henry West.
Fortunately, the found footage was reduced to the minimum, and the whole movie is a collage of interviews, eyewitness reports and video recordings (both fixed cameras that capture the experiment and in a limited extent some home recording).You can compare it a bit with "The Quiet Ones".
When the official authorities are called for help after they've noticed that the phenomenal forces aren't controllable, those authorities see an opportunity to use this to their advantage and they try to isolate the supernatural power that resides in Judith.In addition to the total lack of tension, there's also the fact that the surprise effect is totally negated by the testimonies.
I will never understand stuff like that.So to sum up, the pacing is good at first, then it gets a little boring, and then it goes down hill.
The film portrayal of titular institution goes beyond average found footage gimmick, its understanding of the presentation makes it as though audience is watching real documentary from science channel.
However, parts of the film aren't as consistently polished and these issues stutter the pace and occasionally derail the tension it has built.Dr. Henry West (William Mapother) runs a small lab to research individuals said to have paranormal abilities.
Characters are pretty convincing at their roles, the use of exclusive camera footages without first hand interaction create credible effect.The Atticus Institute offers several unnerving thrills, although the production has few technical flaws.
These issues could've been just minor hiccups, yet they are persistent enough to hamper the movie.The Atticus Institute has intriguing concepts, its clever style almost overcomes the genre familiarities, but ultimately the production isn't adequate enough to fully convey the suspense..
I don't really know what the point of this movie was.It's not scary at all and it's made as a faux documentary style but all the footage of course is fake and all the people interviewed are actors, William Mapother off 'Lost' fame with a very recognisable face plays one of the psychologists maybe if they would have gone with people who weren't as famous it would have worked a little better.But on the other hand there are plenty of faux documentaries that does work so it's not all just that, it's just really boring.I don't really know what more to say about this movie cause there's really nothing to say, a real big bore of a movie..
It was something we have seen many times in other movies, and it is always great to see a good possession movie as long as it is scary and well made !
Seriously how can you hate this movie?Clever, interesting and original The Atticus Insititute gets a thumbs up from me, hats off to writer and director Chris Sparling.
Frankly I am very fond of horror movies especially those involving demonic possessions based on true stories.
The best thing that I liked about this movie was the way in which the story was told, shot more like a documentary, depicting events using recorded footage's.
In addition there were certain events in the movie which are based on true stories.The movie starts at a slow pace but in a unique way uses some of the characters to narrate the incidents that occurred in 1976 at a paranormal institute.
This film takes its time to build the tension and suspense but it does so masterfully that in the end you are left wandering what you are watching is not really happening.A film is only as good as the cast, which made me wonder how difficult it was to play the Judith Winstead's character.
The Atticus Institute also has some really scary scenes with the demonic possession display shot to perfection.Overall I can say 'The Atticus Institute' is a movie that in a unique way provides a lot of suspense.
There's the main issue of this one cutting away from the story continuously in order to get the talking head interviews and their own personal accounts of what happened that doing so in this manner causes the film to be so start/stop in terms of its pace that it really can't generate much in terms of atmosphere or suspense when it has to cut away when something's interesting to come back to these.
This one goes for brief inserts recreating what happened that are quite hard to make out the point of when they just spend the entire time going nowhere with the storyline as they don't lead up to anything except the next talking-head interview, and there's little to be gleaned from that type of structure.
The other issue here is that it's highlighting how uneventful the first half of this one is where they go into the research institute's background and history with its' patients before getting her there as none of this is really all that involved in getting this one going along at an inviting pace with the main purpose of the film appearing so late into here since all of the lead-up time is taken on setting the stage here with not just the interviews but the footage shot documenting the very same thing we just heard them talk about.
Still, this one isn't all that bad as there's some good stuff involved here with the surprising feat of it not being all that boring at all, keeping this one moving along at a nice enough pace that there's not a whole lot really worth skipping over or just ignoring, blazing through here with a rather impressive pace that keeps this one going along rather nicely.
I rarely, if ever, enjoy the 'found footage/ faux documentary' genre of films.
Enter Judith Winstead (arguably the main character of the film and very well portrayed by Rya Kihlstedt) is a withdrawn and a somewhat vacant woman capable of truly remarkable things.
The story unfolds as a series of interviews between various individuals of interest in centered around Judith's life and her time at the Atticus Institute.What makes this movie more interesting that most is an excellent blend of plot devices.
As the movie progresses, the scientist find the source of Judith's remarkable power, and it becomes a slightly different kind of film.
By the second act the military becomes involved, although it seems like such a preposterous plot twist, it is so smoothly done that it feels like a natural progression of the documentary.There are some rather silly effects throughout the film, a couple of rather predictable jump scares, and several other things that perhaps with a little more effort from post-production could have been avoided.
However, I actually paused the film at these moments and thought they were fairly interesting, and they lend a lot into the story line.
But well, the point is that there aren't as many horror pseudo-documentaries as before, but among the ones which still remain, we can find some competent ones, such as The Atticus Institute.
Built as an authentic documentary with interviews, fixed photography and videos from different sources, this film tells us an interesting story about the formal investigation of extrasensory powers in a scientific context, taking advantage of many events from the real world in order to add credibility to the testimonies of "witnesses" who experienced the horrors unleashed by the well intentioned Dr. Henry West and his psychic star, the unbalanced Judith Winstead.
In summary, The Atticus Institute works better as a pseudo-documentary than as a horror film, something which isn't bad in my own opinion.
I'm the kind of a horror movie viewer who wants the occasional scare but doesn't like too much gore or disgusting content.
For this reason I've grown fond of horror movies filmed as if they we're documentaries made by the people involved in the incidents that occur.
I can even watch the gory parts if the movie isn't about the gore but about really truly scaring and creeping you out till your skin crawls and you have this feeling like something is itching on the back of your head.Good examples of this kind of horror genre are Paranormal Activity and Rec and their sequels.
It's not a horror (there isn't a single scare scene), it some kind of thriller told in mostly in old footage and pictures.
It's not scary, not interesting, and at running time 1 h 19 min this movie drags beyond believe.
"The Atticus Institute" is framed in a documentary style with faux footage from the actual case involving the study of telekinesis and especially the study of one extraordinary subject- Judy Winstead.
There isn't really a lot of creativity in "The Atticus Institute" beyond the initial concept of the military trying to control a demonically possessed person for some twisted warmongering ideology.
It all really has the same quality of effect on the movie goer as those television paranormal documentary series were you know exactly what is about to happen in the recreation because they all but told you so just moments before.
"The Atticus Institute" doesn't really give itself space to build up for some much needed scary moments-and there was plenty of opportunity for some real thrills.
Overall "The Atticus Institute" is one of those mediocre horror films that you can coast your way through if you are just determined to watch it.
If you like móvies about possessions it's not the best but it's not the worst Plot: The movie is about a group of scientists trying to finde someone who can prove that phsiquiqs powers existe and can be use to help people and to defend the country from attacks without warning from other countries or from terrorist It's an interesting plot and i think they did the best they could with the budget Effects,cast and pacing: very little cgi and most of it is adequate Acting is great.the cast is almost perfect(as usual considering the budget) The pacing is a bit slow and the documemtary style could be boring for some people .give it a try ir you like horror movies.
This movie made me wish and want to believe The Atticus Institute was real, that Judith Winstead was a real person, much in the vein of The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
I think the promo for this film spoiled it a little in telling you upfront that this is about possession and the military's attempts to use the powers that are released.
We see what the researchers think is the world's first real case of telekinetic powers then the realisation that dark forces are at work...by then it's too late.Very believable documentary footage, all the government people were brilliantly cast...if you'd stumbled across this half way through you'd think it was a real doc for a while!
watch it not like an usual Horror movie but like a one try to respect your thought...
Credits for that also it almost looked real at some times, old cameras, time scene and all.This kind of thing could be so much better.I understand that it is almost impossible to create so much fictitious stuff like taking some exorcist in the film (what was actually funny) but all I got was boredom.Actors (all but the main character) were very some kind of make-out, they didn't seem to act at all.
Eyes were pretty nice but nothing else to say actually, waste of time mostly.Props for the try, maybe someone will be better in future :) I'm not a director at least in real industry or anything but I never would use this all stuff based on like nonsense.I believe in paranormal things and brain issues but this was just boring for me.
Before anything else, I would like to say for the record, that 'The Atticus Institute' is an entertaining movie, and for what it's worth, I at no point felt tempted to turn it off, like I do with so many of these types of films.
Like Lake Mungo, The Atticus Institute is a faux-documentary including 'found-footage' from a supposed government cover-up over the investigation into military attempts at harnessing paranormal abilities found in a middle age woman who, as it turns out, is probably possessed by some type of malevolent spiritual entity.
Asides from the similar film, 'The Quiet Ones', the premise is rather unique, and the documentary interviews are very well acted.
Unfortunately, it's the 'found-footage' segments that start to fall flat over the course of the movie, bringing my rating down by a few points.For the most part 'The Atticus Institute' is convincing in it's attempt at the mockumentary angle.
Unlike most movies of this ilk, 'The Atticus Institute' is rather pleasing to the eye, another quality it shares with it's superior counterpart, 'Lake Mungo'.The real problem with the film in it's final 30 minutes or so is that it diverges from it's rather interesting and captivating story and takes a turn towards the cliché.
The Atticus Institute is entertaining, and the first half of the film is really quite good.
So I sat down to watch "The Atticus Institute".But I must admit that I lost interest fairly quickly into the movie.
I am sure that some will enjoy the style in which the movie is filmed and set up, but it just didn't sit well with me."The Atticus Institute" just never took off.
I like mocumentary style more than founded footage, but movie absolutely fails in realization.
Much of this documentary-style horror is filmed in flashback.
Although 'The Atticus Institute is as convincing a depiction of supernatural events in the hands of officials as I've ever seen, this results in a lack of pace and spectacle – but that's fine when the results are this good.
One of the best documentary type films i've seen.
This films is basically a reviewing of archived Psychic experiments that went horribly wrong, but it is done so well at times you think its real, you can tell the budget was not huge but it didn't matter because they used it wisely almost to the point of brilliantly, so the story unfolds as an interview type documentary on several scientists while showing the archived videos of the experiments, a bunch of Psychic researchers do simple experiments on hundreds of subjects with little to no real definitive results, they are almost at the end of their funding when a woman walks in and volunteers for testing, she is barely coherent at times but in that very 1st day she proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Psychic abilities are real, in the process of showing the videos and talking about the events, they show the real Black and White videos of the Russian woman that proved she could move small objects with her mind (these video clips are real not part of the movie videos), but this woman that they are testing now is beyond any subject that has ever been tested, suffice to say, things turn from bad to worse real quick, there is real tension throughout the film, the acting is fantastic, the ending felt slightly rushed but over all this was great, it's different and it's scary at times because the story is told in a multi layered type fashion to add realism, the interviewer is asking questions to a person that was present, you see their reactions as they are responding and sometimes showing the actual videos as they are still explaining and then show their afterthoughts, it was great, that's my opinion, you see Hollywood spending $100 million plus of films that end up being crap and you see films like this that the story drives the experience at a fraction of the budget, story telling at it's best, I do have to say that I'm bias in the sense that Psychic powers and Psychic research type films has always interested me tremendously so on films like this one, Chronicle, Scanners or even The Fury 1978 are always going to receive a high score from me if done well, and all those films mentioned including this one are scores of 10 in my book.
And at times,you forget you are watching a film.