russian sleep experiment movie name

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The Soviet Sleep Experiment

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Barry Andersson

Eva De Dominici

Dr. Anna Antonoff

Rafal Zawierucha

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Chris Kattan

Michael Villar

Charles Hubbell

Soviet Sleep Experiment

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The Soviet Sleep Experiment

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Eva De Dominici

Chris Kattan

Subject 3/Yuri

Rafal Zawierucha

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The Soviet Sleep Experiment (2019)

79min - English

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The Soviet Sleep Experiment streaming: where to watch online?

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Russian researchers in the late 1940s keep five people awake for fifteen days using an experimental stimulant. Based on the popular internet horror story (Creepypasta) “The Russian Sleep Experiment”.

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

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You Gotta Believe Review: Vintage Luke Wilson and Greg Kinnear Fuel a Classic Kids' Sports Flick

The thicket review: a riveting & gritty western thriller with superb actors, cary fukunaga's first film since misconduct allegations to star tom hardy.

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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User history

Russian sleep experiment (2019)

Short, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Was the Russian Sleep Experiment Real?

An account describing the horrific results of a 'russian sleep experiment' from the late 1940s is a work of modern creepy fiction., david mikkelson, published aug. 27, 2013.

About this rating

A popular creepy online tale of a "Russian Sleep Experiment" (with the improbable title tag of "Orange Soda") involves Soviet researchers who kept five people awake for fifteen consecutive days through the use of an "experimental gas based stimulant" and opens as follows:

Russian researchers in the late 1940's kept five people awake for fifteen days using an experimental gas based stimulant. They were kept in a sealed environment to carefully monitor their oxygen intake so the gas didn't kill them, since it was toxic in high concentrations. This was before closed circuit cameras so they had only microphones and 5 inch thick glass porthole sized windows into the chamber to monitor them. The chamber was stocked with books, cots to sleep on but no bedding, running water and toilet, and enough dried food to last all five for over a month. [Remainder of article here .]

This account isn't a historical record of a genuine 1940s sleep deprivation research project gone awry, however. It's merely a bit of supernatural fiction that gained widespread currency on the Internet after appearing on Creepypasta (a site for "short stories designed to unnerve and shock the reader") in August 2010.

By David Mikkelson

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

How the Russian Sleep Experiment became a global phenomenon

In the 1940s, a group of Russian researchers sealed five prison inmates in an airtight chamber.

The prisoners were dosed with an experimental gas that would prevent them from sleeping. Their conversations were electronically monitored, and their behaviour was observed through secret two-way mirrors.

For the first few days, everything seemed fine. But after the fifth day, they slowly began to exhibit signs of stress. They became paranoid and stopped talking to one another, whispering about each other into the microphones.

Nine days in, the screaming began. Two of the sleepless prisoners just started running around the chamber, yelling so hard their vocal chords nearly broke.

Suddenly, however, the voices stopped, and the chamber became dead quiet. Fearing the worst, the researchers announced that they were opening the chamber. But a voice from inside answered: "We no longer want to be freed."

On the 15th day, the stimulant gas was replaced by fresh air. The results were chaotic.

One inmate was dead. The inmates had been severely mutilated, flesh torn off their bodies and stuffed into the floor drain. They seemed to have ripped open their own abdomens, and even eaten their own flesh.

They refused to leave by force, fighting back with a powerful aggression none of the researchers could have imagined they possessed. They fought furiously against being removed and anesthetised; one even tore his own muscles and ripped his bones apart during the struggle. When asked why they had mutilated themselves, each gave the exact same answer: "I must remain awake."

The researchers wanted to kill the prisoners and remove all traces of the experiment, but their commanding officer demanded it be resumed immediately, with the researchers joining the inmates in the sealed chamber. Horrified, the chief researcher shot him point blank.

He then shot and killed the two last surviving subjects, and set about covering up all that had taken place.

WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST READ?

Okay, first thing's first: that story didn't actually take place in real life.

The creepy picture of the chamber above? An artistic illustration digitally altered by a random internet browser. Sorry.

Entitled 'The Russian Sleep Experiment', it's an internet legend of which the oldest version can be traced back to a Creepypasta Wiki page on August 10, 2010. The user who posted it is named 'Orange Soda', but the author's real name is unknown.

To this day, internet users continue to debate the veracity of this infamous story, despite the fact that it originated on an online forum thread devoted to seeing who can drill up the best "urban legend".

You've read stories like this. There was Slender Man, the story of a lanky faceless giant who frequents children's playgrounds. He gained the most attention when he inspired two young girls in Wisconsin to attempt to brutally kill their friend (unfortunately, that part was true). Then there's Jeff The Killer, the chalk-faced teenager-turned-murderer who goes insane and becomes a bloodthirsty psychopath.

The thing is, when you first read these horrific stories, they almost seem just realistic enough to work. After all, scientists have been studying the effects of sleep deprivation throughout the 20th century.

Even today, there are wide reports of meth-induced hallucinations resulting from a lack of sleep. Why wouldn't a story of a crazy Russian experiment from the 1940s seem plausible?

After careful analysis, Sara McGuire of Venngage has shared a visual report detailing exactly what it takes for a horror story to go viral.

HOW TO CREATE A VIRAL HORROR STORY

McGuire read and analysed samples of 72 top 'Creepypastas' across the internet.

She then identified the seven most common ingredients used in the top stories. In order from most to least common, they are:

UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENON (71 per cent)

The report found that humans are most thrilled by the unknown; things that we will never understand. The story needs to involve a strange occurrence or creature whose origins are unknown, but has a lasting impact on our psyche.

FIRST-PERSON NARRATIVES (68 per cent)

The report argues that if a story is told as a personal account, there's always the possibility that it might be true, even if you know it realistically couldn't be. The Russian Sleep Experiment was actually the only story of the top 10 that wasn't told in the first-person voice.

MONSTERS AND SUPERNATURAL BEINGS (61 per cent)

The success of the Russian Sleep Experiment is attributed to the fact that the "monsters" actually come from a very real, human place, which seems to make them more plausible. This also explains the popularity of the Slender Man.

CLIFFHANGERS (53 per cent)

This is common in horror movies, or even just book chapters and TV shows. You leave the reader or viewer with a chill and keep the mystery alive. The report notes this is especially effective in cases where the reader is left to question whether something similar could happen to them.

MURDER (46 per cent)

It goes without saying that most people are afraid of murder, which is why it's a plot device in almost half of these stories.

CREEPY IMAGES (24 per cent)

Fun fact: Slender Man originally started as a Photoshop contest. Users on a forum were asked to digitally alter an ordinary photo to create a creepy internet legend. And it can be really hard to shake a disturbing image.

CREEPY VIDEOS (6 per cent)

The rarest of the ingredients, only two Creepypasta stories originally used a video, according to McGuire. She notes that most of the time, videos are created by fans of a viral story after it's already become famous.

McGuire's report found that stories which used four of these ingredients - no more, no less - gave a story the best chance at going viral. The Russian Sleep Experiment is the most viral 'Creepypasta' story on the internet, with a total of 64,030 shares. It used four ingredients: an unexplained phenomenon, murder, monsters (in this case, humans-turned-zombies) and a series of creepy images of poor black and white quality to suggest they authentically match the time period.

So that's that. If you want to go viral, McGuire says there are some basic rules to comply with:

• Tell a personal anecdote where possible. It will make you seem more relatable to the reader and it can be used in virtually every writing context to add colour to a story.

• Get your Photoshop on. Obscure, creepy images that aren't quite bad (or polished!) enough to be false tend to work very well. Slender Man is a perfect example.

• Leave readers wanting more. Cliffhangers are deliberately frustrating. You want a satisfying ending or conclusion, and instead, you're left filled with questions. Readers are more likely to share these types of stories because they're more debatable.

Alternatively, just shut down your device now and walk away. These stories alone are creepy enough to keep us up for two weeks straight - no experimental gas required.

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Why the Horrors of the 'Russian Sleep Experiment' Probably Didn't Happen

This animation investigates the facts behind this pervasive urban myth.

Especially if you haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately, you might wonder just how long you can go on like that. Exactly how long could you stay awake without cracking as a result of sleep deprivation? Some people say there was an over-the-top experiment for that. Experts are quick to debunk it.

The Russian Sleep Experiment is a popular urban myth which began to circulate online in "creepypasta" forums (so-named for the ease with which you could copy-paste spooky content) in the early 2010s. But could this deeply unsettling legend have had some roots in fact?

The story goes that Soviet-era scientists created a stimulant which they believed would enable soldiers to not require sleep for up to 30 days. They decided to test their new gas on five prisoners, promising them their freedom upon completion of the experiment. They locked the five men in a hermetically sealed chamber and began pumping in the gas. Within a few days, the men were exhibiting the kind of paranoia and psychosis that is a typical symptom of sleep deprivation. But as time went on, they began to act even more strangely.

15 days into the experiment, when scientists could no longer see the men through the thick glass of the chamber, or hear them through the microphones, they filled the room with fresh air and unlocked it. There, they discovered that one of the men was dead, and the four surviving test subjects were all sporting horrendously violent injuries, some of which appeared to be self-inflicted.

Attempts to sedate the men were either unsuccessful, or led to their deaths the moment they lost consciousness. Finally, when one of the researchers asked what exactly these men had become, the last surviving test subject told him that they represented the potential for evil that exists in all human beings, which is usually contained by sleep, but had been unleashed by their constant wakefulness. Chilling stuff.

Is any of the Russian Sleep Experiment actually true?

According to a video from The Infographics Channel on YouTube, which provides animated summaries of events from history, current events and literature, the Russian sleep experiment almost certainly has its basis in fiction. For one thing, there's the fact that the story's sole original source seems to be a website dedicated to telling creepy (made-up) stories. But even the science doesn't hold up.

Experts are quick to refute this myth as well. There's no scientific ground proving that gas (or any other substance, for that matter) can keep a person awake for 30 days, says Po-Chang Hsu, MD , an internal medicine physician and medical content expert at SleepingOcean. “Some drugs and high caffeine dosages may grant a couple of days without shut-eye, but 30 is impossible,” he says.

Additionally, this experiment is unlikely because of the effect sleep deprivation has on the brain, Dr. Hsu says.

“Even after a few days, a person can start hallucinating, which would make it extremely hard for them to perform simple daily actions, let alone deal with military assignments that require extreme focus,” he says.

So how long can someone truly stay awake?

The current documented world record for staying awake is a bit longer than 11 days , which was achieved by Randy Gardner in 1963. Gardner experienced severe behavioral and cognitive changes during those 11 days (even though he wanted to prove that nothing bad would happen when a person doesn’t sleep), Dr. Hsu says. He also experienced mood swings, memory issues, severe difficulty focusing, paranoia and hallucinations.

While there is some truth to the claims that amphetamines have been used to keep soldiers alert in historical times of war, there is no scientific evidence of a gas existing that could keep anyone awake for 15 days. And studies have found that after just 48 hours without sleep, people tend to become slower, disoriented, prone to making mistakes, and ultimately less effective as a soldier.

“Since the brain can’t function properly after being sleep-deprived for 11 days, it’s safe to assume things would get much worse if one tries to stay awake longer,” he says. “Consequently, those soldiers would’ve been useless even if they miraculously managed not to sleep for 30 days.”

Still, whoever came up with the story of the Russian sleep experiment in the first place deserves points for their creative writing... if not for medical accuracy.

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