The Institute

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.

Not sure what they hoped to gain from this movie. I'm surprised at how terrible it is considering the line-up. However, terrible it is, and I wouldn't recommend investing the time. James Franco should reconsider his decision to direct films.

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!!

A pittyful effort of look smart and surprising, comes out as a leading disorientation and regret. I genuinely believe, Franco did this movie just to be more around half naked women. It may also be a result of beting between two buddies. No story, no continuity, no acting, no screenplay, no music and no nothing. Costumes are nice though...

I was genuinely disappointed. This then annoyed me....because, well I rather like James Franco. His role in 127 hrs was quite sublime. But in this? I'm still not even sure what this was. It felt like a rather disjointed medley consisting of a ridiculous plot, followed by some horrendous acting and they then thought they could mask it by using unnecessary nudity throughout (and I love nudity! So coming from me, that is a shocker!) but all joking aside, I have to be honest and say, it was just awful.