"The Subjects" begins abruptly with a commercial about the pharmaceutical company SunSky. Unfortunately the quality of this fragment wasn't maintained the entire movie. As slick and polished as this clip looks like, so limited and dated the rest looks. The entire film takes place in one location. A discarded music studio that looks quite dusty. It's there where the eight guinea pigs are waiting, in order to take part in a medical experiment. You'd expect a high-tech, pharmaceutical company would have a glitzy, modern laboratories to do such experiments. This seemed rather like an out of use, abandoned hangar somewhere in a ghetto.

The eight strangers participating in this experiment are told that they'll take a new type of medication, in the form of a pill, and they need to stay for eight hours in that room. After that period, they can leave and will receive a reward of $ 800. This new chemical substance gives each person some kind of super power. And it looks like they don't have control over it. So you get some ordinary people, in essence insignificant persons, in a difficult situation with no way out. So it entirely degenerates into a tense, psychopathic atmosphere. And this while scientists are observing everything by use of cameras. So they are trapped like rats. Or better, trapped like Guinea pigs. As the title of the film says, they are simply ordinary, manipulable subjects.

The idea had potential enough to make it a fascinating film. However, the development left something to be desired. Partially you can blame the budget. "The Subjects" meets all the requirements of a low-budget B-movie. The actors are total strangers, the setting where everything takes place looks cheap and the effects are taken out of a vintage bag of tricks. The only thing this film could save would be a strong, original story and some brilliant performances. Unfortunately it goes wrong in that area as well.

The actors play a variety of personalities, ranging from extremely annoying to highly entertaining. Most annoying characters are Jenna (Emily Wheaton) and Devin (Spencer McLaren). The first was the height of stupidity. A conceited, narcissistic bimbo whose only purpose in life is to attend as many parties as possible. Devin is a nasty, aggressive guy who fortunately experiences the unpleasant side effects of the pill first. Corey (Paul-Henri) is the weirdo of the company. Someone who was at Woodstock I guess and I'm sure he used some other pills. John (Paul O'Brien) can be seen as the most normal and relaxed person. The magic tricks he knew were a little bland. After his first childish demonstration I was convinced that this would be important in the complete story. Nikki (Katharine Ines) is the appropriate person to complement John. A seemingly very normal, nice looking woman who prefers to reveal nothing about herself. Lilly (Charlotte Nicdao) is a timid girl. She's the complete opposite of Giggles (Frank Magree),an Australian big mouth. The latter created a bit of animo and evoked a few chuckles from me. Highly amusing. And somewhere at the end, Phil (Tosh Greenslade) shows up. His pill had one of the most interesting effects.

A colorful group which ensures some lively conversations. But the special effects were incredibly bad. Especially what happened to Devin was poorly displayed. The superpowers weren't very original either. I wondered what's so special about a force that enables you to change color. The most imaginative powers were the teleportation part and time traveling. Lilly, however, suddenly emerging as an expert in time travel, was a bit nonsensical and quite a coincidence. You're witnessing the whole movie how individuals get into a panicked state and how these characters interact and react to each other. It's not really exciting and there are too many aspects that remain unclear. A unique concept, though. But my view about Australian films being among the better movies generally, is being undermined a bit with this film.

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The Subjects is the type of movie that utilizes "strangers trapped on predicament" scheme, with added superpower twist. This is not the caliber of X-Men nor does it deliver a cerebral psychology commentary of the powers' repercussion. What it does decently is producing satire of sci-fi which seems bizarre at first, but might just be odd enough for a realistic display of men given extreme powers with barely any supervision.

Story revolves around this group of men and women who are willing participants in a medical experiment. Most of the narrative is presented in mock commercial and brief tapes, and the rest moves along with the group's banter. The movie, like the characters, is confined to the room, so this is not the adventure fantasy type where fireballs are thrown at constant rate.

A lot of the plot hinges on chemistry of the cast, and admittedly these are colorful characters, almost too lively in fact. Sometimes they appear far too comical or predictably mysterious. These personalities are ludicrous versions of nerd, suave gentleman and thug instigator. The movie plays around with their oddities, resulting in a mixed bag of silly antics and actual violence.

Most of the banters are rather too strange, even for satirical purpose, although this does serendipitously produce humor. Its clash between serious tone and campy delivery can be too jarring for some. Furthermore, those who are not too familiar with sci-fi might not appreciate the cumbersome amount of fictional expositions.

This movie doesn't possess narrative depth or grand special effect, although it's presentably wacky enough for a simple entertainment.

First off. This is my first review. I've been an IMDb member since 2006, and the main reason (besides laziness) for not writing a review earlier, has been the language barrier. I'm Swedish, and my English vocabulary is somewhat limited.

The reason why I chose to review this movie isn't because it's so good that it changed my religion, nor so bad it made me change my underwear. It's just because of the obvious studio-affiliated reviews. We really need honest reviews here on IMDb- or else the site will eventually implode, by studios applauding themselves.

Right. Now the review.

It's the basic "diverse group of people stuck in a room" concept. This time, the twist is that they're a focus group, trying out a pill. It soon becomes apparent that the pill gives the group different superpowers.

The actors are OK. Some more annoying than others. The archetypes are all there. But hey. What fun is a room full of like minded people, right? So I'll let that one slide. The script is the weakest point. The movie is short, clocking in at roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes- but they were clearly struggling to fill that little time. The godawful "debate" about whether to take the pill or not, at the very beginning of the movie is a prime example of that.

So it's not aces. It's not groundbreaking. It's not even very original although it tries so hard to be. But. Was i bored watching it? Nope. It was OK for the duration. It was OK for what it was.

So if you like the setup- group stuck in room, or like seeing superpowers emerging in regular people, then yeah. This will be OK for a Sunday afternoon. Don't worry too much about some characters that seem to have the superpower to be super annoying- because thankfully this movie has a high body count.

So in summary: -some annoying characters -Weak dialogue -Low budget special effects -Entertaining story (if you like superheroes/villains) -Doesn't take itself too serious (the end credits makes this abundantly clear)

As a superpowers fan, I rate The Subjects 6/10.