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The Sleep Experiment Review: A Hair-Raising & Shocking Adaption of the Legendary Internet Urban Legend

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The Sleep Experiment is an excellent horror film that dives deep into the psychological damage caused by a top-secret government experiment. Based on Creepypasta’s The Russian Sleep Experiment , writer/director John Farrelly delivers his first feature film that exposes the horrors of what humanity is capable of when pushed to the brink. The film begins with a slow burn, however, as time passes on and the test subjects begin to hallucinate, the plot transitions into the psychological thriller realm before escalating into full physical horror in the final act. The Sleep Experiment has some pretty decent twists and turns along the way (some more obvious than others), but overall has a very solid story with a great performance from the entire cast.

Spoiler Warning Two detectives David (Anthony Murphy) and Robert (Barry John Kinsella) begin an investigation on the ethics involved in the top-secret research facility, Porton Down. One experiment stands out to them as the most horrific, The Sleep Experiment, a scientific experiment that took place during the Cold War. The experiment consisted of five prisoners, deemed Enemies of the State, being locked in a sealed gas chamber. An airborne stimulant was continually administered to keep the subjects awake for 30 consecutive days. The prisoners were promised that they would be set free and erase their prison sentences if they successfully complete the experiment.

In the film’s opening scene, a vehicle is driving through the night on May 16th, 1961, and arrives at a secret facility. Armed guards wearing protective gear wait outside the building as five hooded men are escorted down a dark staircase into an underground bunker. The five men are all prisoners held on national security charges, Luke (Will Murphy), Patrick (Sam McGovern), Edward (Rob James Capel), Sean (Brian Moore), and Eric (Steven Jess). Fifteen years in the future, the two detectives are interviewing Christopher (Tom Kerrisk), about his involvement with the experiment.

As the experiment officially begins, the five prisoners begin to become better acquainted with each other. They each introduce themselves and reveal their backstories as well as why they were originally sent to prison before participating in the experiment. The prisoners were all charged and convicted with either murder or attempted murder. The men are hopeful that they will successfully complete the experiment so that they can be released from prison and return home to their families. Back in 1976, the two detectives believe that Christopher was the person who designed the sleep experiment for the military.

As the interview continues, Christopher reveals that the five prisoners weren’t randomly chosen for the experiment, but in fact, they each volunteered to participate. The detectives accuse Christopher of being responsible for the deaths of nine people when the experiment was being conducted. On the fourth day of the experiment, Eric begins to struggle mentally while Patrick has an asthma attack. The guards enter the room and escort Patrick to receive medical attention. The very next day (Day 5), Patrick returns to the experiment room where the rest of the prisoners immediately become suspicious of his actual whereabouts.

Hallucinations Rapidly Approach

As the film’s timeline continues to shift back and forth between 1961 and 1976, Christopher provides plenty of details and information to the two detectives about his design. During the interview, Christopher discovers that the experiment is connected personally to Robert, learning that his father was one of the test subjects. On Day 12, Patrick has another asthma attack and is escorted out of the room for the second time. The men begin having extreme hallucinations as Eric and Sean scream and demand to be released from the experiment. The next day, Patrick returns to the experiment room where he doesn’t seem to be in the same condition as his fellow test subjects.

Luke becomes even more suspicious of Patrick only to learn that he has been taking notes of everything that has happened for the past twelve days. Edward experiences a severe hallucination where he believes that Luke is responsible for the death of his daughter. As Edward confronts Luke, Luke unveils the notebook that he had stolen from Patrick. It is revealed that Patrick was an undercover test subject the entire time. Luke provokes Edward into believing that he truly killed his daughter until Edward reaches a mental breaking point and brutally kills Luke.

Related: Nocebo Review: An Obvious Plot Derails Supernatural Thriller

With Luke dead and the other test subjects mentally spiraling out of control, on Day 14, the scientists decide to shut down the experiment and immediately send armed guards into the room. As the guards cautiously enter the pitch-dark room, they are violently attacked by the prisoners, causing more deaths in the process. The surviving guards are able to successfully remove the prisoners from the room where they immediately seek medical assistance. Back in 1976, Christopher leaves the interview before apologizing to Robert about his father.

After the interview, the detectives decide to continue their investigation where they speak with a chemical engineer who helped conduct the experiment. They discover that Christopher not only designed the experiment but was also the lead scientist. David races to Christopher’s home only to find that he had already left town. In the basement of Christopher’s home, David finds and listens to a tape recording only to learn the horrible truth of Christopher's intentions and the end result of the five prisoners.

John Farrelly Succeeds in Filmmaking

From the directing standpoint, John Farrelly did not disappoint with The Sleep Experiment . Both timelines in the story transitioned at a very good pace, while the cinematography and soundtrack are superb. With only an hour and 20-minute runtime, the film did seem short, but it gets straight to the point and doesn’t prolong the story whatsoever. The Irish psychological thriller , The Sleep Experiment , is a film worth watching and certainly payoffs as an outstanding first feature film for John Farrelly.

The Sleep Experiment comes to us from Red Water Entertainment and is currently available on a number of digital and cable platforms, including iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, iNDemand, and DISH.

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The Sleep Experiment

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The Sleep Experiment

Cast & crew.

Tom Kerrisk

Christopher

Rob James Capel

Will Murphy

Sam McGovern

Brian Moore

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> The Sleep Experiment (2022) Film Review

The sleep experiment.

Reviewed by: Jennie Kermode

The thing about the experiments carried out at Porton Down in the mid 20th Century – which followed, to an extent, in the same tradition as MK Ultra in the US – is that so much remains hidden about them, and there is so much denial surrounding them, that fiction writers can use them as a foundation for all sorts of things. Writer/director John Farrelly has claimed them as inspiration for this thriller about prisoners and sleep deprivation, but it has notable features in common with a similarly titled Creepypasta story. What gives it some weight regardless is its focus on Irish characters, which reflects other aspects of the troubled history of the British state and makes the central premise all too believable.

This concerns five men, hooded and marched into what looks like an underground bunker in the opening scenes. All serving lengthy prison sentences, they have been told that they will have them commuted if they cooperate in an experiment which involves an experimental gas. “You must stay awake for the next 30 days. You must complete all physical activities. You must obey any orders given to you without delay. Strictly no physical contact between each other,” intones a voice. The parameters of the experiment are clumsily drawn. It doesn’t seem likely to produce good quality data, but its flaws are in line with the approach of similar studies at the time, and there’s no reason to assume somebody would have intervened.

We watch events unfold at a distance, the idea being that events in the bunker were recorded on tapes and are being reviewed by detectives many years later. Farrelly’s shooting style doesn’t fit this narrative, so you will have to suspend disbelief, but the format enables him to jump back and forth, introducing new snippets of information wherever they are most effective from a dramatic perspective. One tape is missing, and yes, it does turn up right at the end. In the meantime, the detectives build on their observations from the tapes by interviewing psychologist Christopher Sampson (Tom Kerrisk), who designed the experiment.

Down there in the bunker in the past timeline are likeable, practical Edward (Rob James Capel), who is sympathetically presented as having committed murder only to avenge his murdered child; shy young Eric (Steven Jess), who immediately triggers Edward’s protective instincts; pushy but personable Sean (Brian Moore); tediously vacant psychopath Luke (Will Murphy); and peculiarly well-adjusted Patrick (Sam McGovern), who just wants to get it all over with and get out, but who may have a secret. Viewers will immediately suspect that these particular characters have been placed together for a reason which goes beyond what they’ve been told about, and indeed, they don’t need sleep deprivation to start getting on each other’s nerves. Knowing this, Farrelly reveals early on that something went horribly wrong, and has the detectives demand to know more about the men’s backgrounds and why they were chosen.

There’s a lot of potential here, and the result is a film which, whilst disastrous in some respects, works well in others. Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first. Kerrisk’s acting, on which key aspects of the film depend, is terrible. The dialogue is pretty bad throughout, but where other actors mostly succeed in pulling it off, he’s hopeless, trotting out a bizarre description of what it means to be a psychopath as if reading from a Fifties textbook, contributing to the predictable and flaccid ‘twist’ ending in a style which recalls the Republic serial villains of the 1930s, totally at odds with the rest of the film. This is particularly frustrating because not only does it let down the good work elsewhere, it also risks making the whole thing so comical as to provide cover for real life equivalents.

By contrast, the drama in the bunker is quite well handled, with solid work from most of the actors, especially in the early stages. The film is at its strongest before it starts obliging them to show the effects of mental disintegration, but even then, some of it is quite effective, with Eric getting overwhelmed early on due to difficulty in filtering noise, something which many viewers will have experienced for themselves when under stress. Capel and Moore work well together and will leave you wanting to see more of the prisoners’ experience. There’s enough here to illustrate that Farrelly is not without talent. It’s just a shame that the cheesy, clumsily handled aspects of the film prevent it from achieving its potential.

Director: John Farrelly

Writer: John Farrelly

Starring: Rob James Capel, Will Murphy, Tom Kerrisk, Barry John Kinsella, Will Murphy

Runtime: 81 minutes

Country: Ireland

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The Sleep Experiment Reviews

The film falters in its writing and storytelling, leaving little surprise as it concludes.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Mar 9, 2023

There’s a lot of potential here, and the result is a film which, whilst disastrous in some respects, works well in others.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 3, 2022

What a dreadful bore

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Nov 2, 2022

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The sleep experiment.

Directed by John Farrelly

What if reality became your nightmare?

Two detectives begin an investigation into a disastrous secret military experiment where five prisoners were kept awake for thirty days in a sealed gas chamber.

Tom Kerrisk Will Murphy Owen Colgan Brian Moore Rob James Capel Steven Jess Sam McGovern Barry John Kinsella Anthony Murphy Cathal Fitzpatrick

Director Director

John Farrelly

Producers Producers

John Farrelly Peter Cucura

Writer Writer

Editor editor, cinematography cinematography.

Alfie Hollingsworth

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Sound sound.

Tom Stafford

Jackpot FIlms

Ireland USA

Releases by Date

01 nov 2022, 27 feb 2023, releases by country.

84 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by MochtheWeek ½

Well that was.....boring and uneventful. Irish version of the Russian sleep experiment. 2024 watches 🎬

Review by taylor ½ 2

they really chose the top ten spooky tiktok sounds and went ham

Review by frankiepants ★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

How do you make a movie with evil medical experiments, stimulant gas, forced insomnia for a month, criminals and cannibalism THIS BORING?!!!

Review by joshrowley ★

Constrained; intriguing; low-budget; short; slight; underwhelming; uneven; unsatisfying.

Review by dagoetzl ★½

They’d have fallen asleep if this movie were left on in that room.

Review by Mos Co ★

To cut a long story short, this was boring as fk.

Review by Brian Cartwright ½

You had one job. Steal from Reddit. You failed one job.

Review by ryan☢️ ½

WHERES THE BODY HORROR

Review by monketechsuppor ★★★

i cant take the irish serious

Review by J˚ ༘♡ ·˚ ₊˚ˑ༄ؘ ★★

these bitches were up for like 20 days and i cant make it past 24 hours

Review by megs ★½

this is the perfect movie to watch before bed as i almost fell asleep during it several times 🤠

Review by 𝔏𝔦𝔩𝔦˖°🦇ִ ࣪𖤐 . ★★

what happens to me when i don’t drink my minimum 3 monsters a day

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• Cast & crew

Let me out - The Russian Sleep Experiment

• TV Mini Series

Russia, 1978. Four soviet researchers carry out an important human experiment on five American prisoners, including spies, diplomats and soldiers. An anti-sleep gas is introduced into the pr... Read all Russia, 1978. Four soviet researchers carry out an important human experiment on five American prisoners, including spies, diplomats and soldiers. An anti-sleep gas is introduced into the prisoners' cell, separated from the laboratory by a thin wall. During the experiment somethi... Read all Russia, 1978. Four soviet researchers carry out an important human experiment on five American prisoners, including spies, diplomats and soldiers. An anti-sleep gas is introduced into the prisoners' cell, separated from the laboratory by a thin wall. During the experiment something goes wrong, the prisoners show signs of imbalance such as paranoia and self-harm. Even ... Read all

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• 1 win & 5 nominations

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• Prisoner #2 (a.k.a. Miss America)
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Watch The Sleep Experiment

• 1 hr 25 min
• 4.6   (1,146)

Two detectives begin an investigation into a disastrous secret military experiment where five prisoners were kept awake for thirty days in a sealed gas chamber.

• Genres Horror
• Cast Tom Kerrisk Rob James Capel Will Murphy
• Release Date 2022
• MPAA Rating NR
• Runtime 1 hr 25 min
• Language English
• IMDB Rating 4.6   (1,146)