VOD Review: The Atticus Institute (2015)

(aka Demonic Oversight: The Movie.)
Release Date: January 20th.
Country: USA.
Rating: NR.
Written & Directed by: Chris Sparling.
Starring: William Mapother, Sharon Maughan, Anne Betancourt and Julian Acosta.

More Mockumentary than it is Found Footage, The Atticus Institute is above average in the scare department at times, while feeling fairly derivative in most other ways. We liked it though. Mostly.

Tom Cruise's scientist cousin had the best of intentions when he started The Atticus Institute; all he wanted to do was study strange phenomenon like E.S.P and telekinesis, and prove to the world that they were real. Unfortunately, that that whole thing turned out to be a big bust, because none of that stuff is real.

"NO, IT'S NOT THE ACE OF SPADES... UGH."

When Judith Winstead's sister dropped her off at the institute and basically said "This bitch is creepy, you can have her," he and his rag-tag group of  science rebels switched focus to Demonic Possession, which ended up being a much more fruitful endeavor. You see, Judith could make things move, guess what was on cards, kill little kids with paperclips... because she was obviously possessed by a Demon. Hence the switch in focus.

YEAH, SHE'S DEFINITELY CREEPY.

When Cousin Cruise and his team realize that they can't handle Demon Judith by themselves anymore, they do what absolutely no scientist would ever do... they call the U.S. Government to come in and take over! It's not long before the Spooks realize that they have a potentially world-changing weapon on their hands, and decide to use her/it to help them rule the world. Because, America!

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG WITH A ROCK-SOLID PLAN LIKE THAT?

Can any of the scientists ever hope to contain the Demonic entity that they unwittingly unleashed? Will Demon Judith kill them all? Is there anything that the U.S. Government won't exploit to further its own agenda? Far be it from us to spoil anything for you here, but suffice it to say that Tom Cruise's cousin is pretty much screwed.

SORRY, MAN, BUT YOU POKED THE DEMONIC BEAR.

We put off watching this one for the better part of a month because we thought it was going to be another run of the mill Found Footage type of affair... and it was, to a point. The good news is that while being nothing new or fresh, The Atticus Institute did a pretty good job at pulling us into its narrative, and giving us more than a few scares for our trouble. There really are some genuinely creepy moments throughout this one that either made us jump or just plain skeeved us out.

MOMENTS LIKE THIS.

As effective as the movie was at times, it felt equally repetitive and cliche at others: A bunch of scientists test a subject; something odd or creepy happens; then everyone talks about how odd or creepy it was. A repeat of that sequence of events made up about 75% of the movie. Now, we're not really complaining about that, because they way that the film presents its story, both past and present, worked well most of the time. It's just that after a while, we noticed the pattern, and it became a bit predictable. Effective though. Most of it was definitely effective.

We really liked the story, but it never really went anywhere; as much as they built up how dangerous and dire the situation was, nothing ever escalated to truly dangerous levels. Sure, there were a few instances of Demon Judith actually harming people, but it was really never anyone who was central to the plot. Speaking of the story, the movie gives away a lot of its big moments early on, revealing who lives and who dies, and so it's not quite as intriguing as it could have been. In that way, it truly does play like a real Documentary.

MILEY CYRUS IN 20 YEARS.

Never poke the Demonic bear. Also, Tom Cruise is definitely the better looking cousin.*William Mapother is really his cousin.

"I TOLD THEM NOT TO POKE THE DEMONIC BEAR!"

The Atticus Institute is a solid Supernatural Thriller that gave us far more chills than we thought it would. It's repetitive and overly-familiar at times, but the fact that it's anchored by some pretty strong performances by a group of largely unknown actors made most of the lesser aspects of the film seem tolerable. Overall, it's a slightly above average movie that is worthy of a watch.

C+

The Atticus Institute is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD.

Though not sexy in the least, The Atticus Institute was not completely without sexiness.