The Steam Experiment

Title: The Steam Experiment
Rating: 2/5
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Starring: Val Kilmer, Eric Roberts

This is one of those films that had potential be better than the end result. With an unproven director and Val Kilmer starring, an actor who has demonstrated his abilities in the past, but often seems to takes difficult roles in questionable films; his willing to tackle difficult characters, resulting in at least as many near misses as anything greater, is whilst something I applaud, here results in another mediocre affair. The entire film is built on a Mystery/Thriller premise but ultimately fails to captivate, and the result is a half-hearted psychological ‘saw’ clone without the bloodshed.

It is Kilmer’s character of Jimmy that draws the focus, a scientist ridiculed for his unquestionable belief that in 2012, global warming will reach such a critical stage that the entire world will be elevated in temperature by gigantic proportions. Walking into a meeting with the editor for a newspaper, he divulges his tale in the hope of getting published, and getting his message out into the world. It his experiment, trapping six hostages in a steam room; his intention to observe how people will react to the situation they face.

Split into two sections, one exploring the man behind the experiment, intersected with the parallel storyline of those trapped in the steam room, both aspects could have been dealt with in a better manner. Admittedly, Kilmer’s character had a fine line to tread between displaying his poor mental health and his devotion to his beliefs, but the result was that neither felt realistic; there was a distinct lack of empathy for the character, not in the least for his unprofessional methods, but even where he divulged snippets of his traumatic past it failed to strike a chord. On the other side, this attempt overshadowed all but Roberts mediocre portrayal as Grant; performing a role that he felt all too fitting for, he too lacks a certain emphasis on his own psychological status. The rest of those trapped performed in a generic and predictable manner, from the claustrophobic New Yorker to the paranoid amateur romance novelist, no new revelations as to their characters emerge after each of their first 30 second introductions.

The plot was fairly basic in its initial premise, but ended up feeling confused as to what it wanted to accomplish. The horror element felt camera shy during scenes of death, and the psychological element felt hugely unoriginal. The experiment itself was done in a hugely unprofessional manner – certainly not the actions of a fanatic with something to prove – losing any sympathy he might have garnered. The soundtrack was often used to try to emphasise the manner in which the characters interacted with one another, but in truth there were too many characters to explore. The plot twist, whilst hard to see coming until near the end of the film, feels less inspiring and more groan-inducing. In the hands of a more capable director who was more precise in what he wanted from the film it may have been impressive. Unfortunately, this is another low budget film that will seen find itself relegated to the bargain bucket, forgotten as another failure.