Holly Kane Experiment, The (2017)
Matt Boiselle
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Starring Kirsty Averton, Nicky Henson, James Rose
Directed by Tom Sands
Just when you thought it was safe to screw with your subconscious, The Holly Kane Experiment comes along and slaps a big ol’ caveat on that potential undertaking.
Directed by Tom Sands, the film centers around Holly Kane (Averton), an overly eager scientist who just can’t seem to get enough of using herself as a guinea pig for her own theses, so you know that right off the bat, something seriously bad is about to go down. Her small, constricted inner circle consists of the kinds of folk that are solely used for the purpose of exacerbating such self-damaging actions – her “provider” (an endearing term for your drug dealer, played by Lindsay Campbell), Holly’s somewhat love-interest (James Rose), and the man who’s financially responsible for this mess, Dr. Greenslade (Henson). His proposal to assist Holly with her latest project has her chomping at the bit, and we as the audience, can only sit and watch this potential train wreck start to loosen its grip upon the tracks that it rides. Once Holly jumps feet first into this groundbreaking move that consists of tinkering with your subconscious in order to force the mind to subside its primal feelings of nervousness, pain, and even differing personalities, it becomes painfully clear that her (or anyone’s) mind cannot handle the stress.
If all of the above details are something that pique your interest, then I’m truly sorry to say that you’ll probably be disappointed with the bulk of this film’s product – rather ditching the exciting view of a skewed mind, and opting for a drawn-out presentation about intrigue, conspiracy theories and government-brainwashing. Now while I’m sure that this will more than likely draw in an audience that chews this stuff up, I just couldn’t find myself hooked in enough to A: care at all about any one of the characters on display, or B: immerse myself in all of the bureaucracy B.S. in the hopes that this movie would take another solid left turn and right its course back to entertainment-land. Also, there’s somewhat of an implied sense of sexual assault that’s taking place, whereas Holly is being manipulated by the elder Dr. Greenslade – it’s skeevy, it’s generally uncomfortable, and it detracts from the film as a whole. Overall, the film plays like a giant “beware the radicals” announcement, and if I wanted that kind of fear and paranoia tossed at me relentlessly, I’d just leave my TV on the 24-hour news. Bypass this one and save yourself 90+ minutes, as this was an experiment that should’ve never gotten off of the drawing board.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
