‘The Institute' Is a Solid Stephen King Adaptation
That's one reason The Institute is such an intriguing new arrival: it's based on a book that came out just six years ago. Along with The Life of Chuck—a non-horror tale based on a 2020 novella—it seems like King's more recent creations are finally being added into the mix.
That said, The Institute contains quite a few of King's familiar trademarks, especially its blend of 'kids with powers' and 'kids working together against evil.' The new series adaptation arriving on MGM+ remains mostly faithful to the page, with a few tweaks, most notably aging its main character, Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman), up a few years from 12 to 14. That makes the physical and mental trauma he endures easier for the viewer to take.
Just a little bit easier, though. He goes through a lot, as do his peers at the title facility, where he wakes up one morning having gone to sleep in the cozy home he shared with his parents, nice folks not quite sure what to make of their son's genius brain. The slippery team running the Institute, including Mary-Louise Parker as head administrator Mrs. Sigsby, has an excellent idea of what they'd like to use it for, though they're actually more interested in Luke's budding telekinesis.
From the moment Luke opens his eyes, it's clear we've entered a Bad Place in that classic King tradition. Luke quickly bonds with the other young 'recruits' in what feels like a locked-down hospital ward, except the kids have a lot of freedom within its walls, and they all have psychic powers. Imagine variations on Carrie and The Shining's Danny Torrance, except kidnapped and forced to undergo painful tests designed to draw out their abilities. What (clearly sinister) purpose this serves is The Institute's central mystery, along with the adjacent plot of Luke using his impressive intellect to start puzzling through an escape plan.
Elsewhere in The Institute, we follow the parallel story of Tim Jamieson (Ben Barnes from Westworld and Shadow and Bone), who drifts into the small town of Dennison River Bend, Maine, intent on leaving a devastating ordeal behind. He's hired as a 'night knocker'—presumably a Stephen King-coined colloquialism—which basically means he's a police-adjacent night watchman. On his first patrol, he meets Annie (Mary Walsh), the local eccentric, whose warnings about what 'they don't want you to know' seed The Institute's thematic dives into heightened awareness, paranoia, and X-Files-style conspiracy theories.
Though Tim is very insistent that he prefers to mind his own business, we can quickly see he and Luke are destined to meet, especially when Tim takes an interest in that weird old 'infectious disease lab' perched in the woods outside town. But even if The Institute's plot feels mapped out from the beginning—and honestly the story's a bit familiar even if you're not a King junkie—it's still entertaining, even if it lacks the stylistic flair of Stranger Things, which came out before the novel but famously borrows a lot of those King-honed story points.
Amid the cast, Barnes and Parker are the most recognizable faces. Barnes is believable as a nice guy with a bad past, but Parker is the standout. Mrs. Sigsby is a quirky prison warden type who was probably once a decent person but has long since tilted her moral compass in the worst possible direction. The Institute—a secretive Cold War relic chugging along despite a constant staffing problem, run by a powerful yet faceless boss who checks in via conference call—fosters tension among co-workers, and Sigsby clashes with everyone. Though they're ostensibly serving the same cause, there's no trust among the ranks, with the cadaverous Mr. Stackhouse (veteran horror actor Julian Richings) a particularly worrisome wild card.
As Luke, Freeman (the son of actor Martin Freeman) makes an impression; he's a kid with haunted eyes and a mind that never stops working. The other young actors are also good, which is important since they do most of The Institute's emotional heavy lifting.
This might not quite be the Losers' Club uniting to take on Pennywise, but The Institute spells out similar lessons about learning to lean on your friends when you need help, as well as the importance of working together to beat the odds. We've seen it in King stories before, but there's a good reason for that: few arcs are more satisfying. And this one also happens to involve superpowers.
The Institute premieres July 13 on MGM+.
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Geek Vibes Nation
29 minutes ago
- Geek Vibes Nation
Ben Barnes & Joe Freeman on 'The Institute': 'You Have to Be Patient—It Adds to the Tension'
Stephen King's works have been adapted into numerous films over the years, from Carrie to The Shawshank Redemption and from IT to the most recent The Life of Chuck . Whether it's a full-blown horror movie or a more balanced drama, King is present in both bookstores and cinemas. However, even the smaller screen is made for his mind-blowing novels, as his The Institute is coming to MGM+ as a same-named series. The series combines elements of supernatural horror, fantasy, and thriller in a way that effectively tells the intriguing story of a young boy (Luke Ellis, played by Joe Freeman) who is abducted due to his unique abilities. He wakes up in a mysterious facility called The Institute, where he meets other kids with similar powers. The head of The Institute, Ms. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker), wants to use their powers for her own good. As Ellis fights to break free, the case draws the attention of a new police officer in town, Tim Jamieson (Ben Barnes). Ahead of the release of this highly anticipated series, Geek Vibes Nation had a chat with Barnes ( The Critic ) and Freeman about long days on set, what it's like starring in a Stephen King adaptation, and shooting the most intense scenes. Geek Vibes Nation: First of all, congratulations on the series. Joe, this is your acting debut and what an impressive debut it is. How was it for you to be part of this series? Joe Freeman: It shifted my perspective on how the following year was going to go because I'd left school, and I was like, 'What am I going to do?' I was auditioning, and it was the best feeling in the world when I received the phone call that I had landed the part. Since then, nothing has topped that. Working with such a talented group was terrific. They make you perform better. I did that for other people, and they certainly did it for me. The overall experience, not just the filming aspect but also that first proper bit of independence — living alone on another continent for four months — was all perfect. GVN: Did you feel even more pressure because it's an adaptation of a Stephen King novel? JF: Everyone loves his work; my granddad is a big Stephen King fan. I've got to do well to please him because he is the biggest Stephen King nerd. Also, just because, again, the talent around me. I felt a lot of pressure, for sure. GVN: And Ben, for you, it was also the first Stephen King adaptation you were in. How is it for you? Ben Barnes: It's one of those bucket list things for me because he's such a prolific author. I've read many of his books and seen numerous film adaptations, and when I knew I would be involved in this project, I devoured the book. He's one of those institutions. You want to make him proud. He has sat with these characters and with these stories, and they've been ruminating, and he's been dreaming about them. I don't know how long it takes Stephen King to write a book, but it takes him many months or years to put these stories on paper. He's living with these people who might be fictional, but he has made them three-dimensional and real for himself. Therefore, you almost want to breathe enough life into it that when he sees it, he feels proud of it. The fact that he had seen the first couple of episodes and then wanted to come on board as a producer of the show felt like a real boon. I felt proud of that. Even just after the first read-through, just sitting next to Joe, I went straight up to the showrunners and said, 'This is going to work'. Mainly because Joe was just brilliant from the first second. GVN: It takes a while into the series before your characters meet. How has it been to act together eventually? BB: I was chomping at the bit by the time we got to that because we'd been hanging out a lot, because it was mainly just the two of us staying in Halifax for all these months, filming separately from each other and then meeting up in these coffee shops. We would be chatting about what we had filmed that week. It all sounded cool and exciting. It also mirrored the tension of the book, as the narrative alternates between these two characters, each with their own experiences and stories, creating a unique tension. You have to wait, structurally, for them to come together, and you have to imagine what that dynamic's going to be and how that's going to play itself out. When you're watching the show, you have to be a bit patient with it, which adds to the tension. Courtesy of Geek Vibes Nation GVN: Joe, your performance seems very physically and psychologically demanding as well. How did the conversations with Benjamin [Cavell, co-writer and co-producer] go to try and get the balance right and for you to also feel comfortable and safe with this performance? JF: In my head, he's written the whole script, so I was like, 'Whatever you need from me to do, I'm thrilled because it's what I'm here to do'. Although, it did get to a point where some of those things took a lot out of me. There were times when I wasn't working for a few days, and it was needed. The filming requires a lot from you, especially in some of those scenes. GVN: After such a demanding day of filming, how would you try to get into a calm headspace again and just put it all behind you? JF: Honestly, most of those days, I would fall asleep after filming. There were long days, but I loved every second of it. And then going to sleep. GVN: Ben, your character, Tim, joins the police force in a tiny town and eventually starts to investigate The Institute. However, Tim's colleagues aren't doing that. They tend to back away from major investigations. Do you think it's because they're afraid of what they're going to find, for example, when investigating, or do you think there's something else going on? BB: I think that the Tim character has a real kind of trigger for and an awareness of injustice and things that don't smell right. He has powerful instincts in that regard. In this genre, people often possess telepathic qualities or telekinetic powers, but Tim is a very grounded, non-magical person with instincts that have proven to be right. Sometimes, they get him into trouble, so there's a wariness to him and a kind of solitude. It keeps him at bay from following his sort of wolf-like instincts to pursue justice. It's that self-awareness that I found interesting about him. He also has a healthy level of awareness. It's essential for him to be a good person and also to see the goodness in others. However, he's been burned enough to have developed a level of cynicism as well, and when you find him in the story, he's trying to find some peace for himself, following his instincts towards a quieter life. He's looking for a pause in his life before deciding what's next for him. However, what he finds is so much more than he bargained for, and he realises that his mission in life is to be a fiercely protective man, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. GVN: Is that also the reason why your characters connect so well? Because he has the good in him, and he sees the good in everyone, even in people he has just met. BB: I think both. What the characters have in common is that they are both fierce protectors of justice, and they feel injustice very keenly, just in different ways. Tim has been through a lot and has an awareness of the evil in the world, including how the powers and the systems in place can be oppressive. Stephen King writes about that stuff a lot, about preying on the vulnerable, and the systems that are in place are not necessarily to be trusted. I don't want to speak for you [Joe], but Luke has a fierce sense of what's right and wrong as well. JF: When he's inside the Institute, you can see that. He doesn't want to be there. No one wants to be there. He turns up, and he asks what the rules are, and then when they don't stick to them, he's like, 'Well, you set the rules'. GVN: The Institute has various rooms. What would be the scariest one for you if it indeed existed? BB: If I were in The Institute, it would be the one with the vending machine—all the weird snacks. JF: Weird, weren't they? They were weird. But I would say the deprivation room. The oxygen. That would scare me the most. BB: Have you heard about this, the quietest room in the world? JF: No. BB: Have you heard about this? GVN: No. BB: I was reading about it the other day. There's a room in the world with a sound level of minus 17 decibels, and if you could last in there for 24 hours, they'd give you a million dollars or something. But the longest anyone's ever been in there is 45 seconds. JF: Wait, why? BB: I think it's unbearable because all you can feel is your heartbeat and breath, and you can even hear the blood in your veins and stuff like that. It's horrifying that no one has been in there for more than 45 seconds. That's what my Instagram wants me to know about, anyway. The Institute is out on the 13th of July on MGM+
Geek Vibes Nation
29 minutes ago
- Geek Vibes Nation
Jack Bender & Benjamin Cavell On 'The Institute': 'It's About Human Monsters—and Kids Saving Themselves'
Adapting Stephen King's work always entails significant risks. The fans will undoubtedly have expectations of the film or series, and as a director or series producer, you want to honour the 'King of Horror' in the best way possible. Jack Bender ( Lost ) and Benjamin Cavell ( Justified ) took on that challenging task for their latest project, The Institute . The series, co-produced by both, is co-written by Cavell and co-directed by Bender. It follows Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman), a teenager who is abducted and taken to a secret facility called The Institute due to his unique abilities. When he meets kids with similar powers to him, he decides to stand up to The Institute's head, Ms Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker), and try to fight back. This results in a series that wonderfully balances aspects of different genres, including sci-fi and horror. Ahead of the series release on MGM+ on the 13th of July, Geek Vibes Nation sat down with Bender and Cavill to talk about the complex casting process, what it's like to have King endorsing your project and more. Geek Vibes Nation: Congratulations on The Institute . What was it about this particular Stephen King novel that made you want to turn it into a series? Jack Bender: Well, I love working with kids and teenagers. While it's difficult at times because you have to get the right cast to make it believable, I love it. The kids and their suffering was also something that I've seen in one of the school shootings we had in America. It was at Parkland High School. I saw how these kids, after suffering through that nightmare, coalesced into a powerful group that started standing up for themselves. They were seniors in high school. They were saying to the adults and the NRA and all the people they were fighting against, 'Get out of our way. We can fix this. It's our lives. You screwed up.' It's like that phrase,' the meek shall inherit the earth'. I thought to myself, children shall inherit the world, but first, they have to save themselves. Once Ben and I came together for this work, we completely agreed that it ultimately had to be about kids saving themselves. Benjamin Cavell: That was what attracted me as well. I also love this King's work, which focuses on human monsters as opposed to the more supernatural monsters that originate from other dimensions. It also explored the incredible theme of children coming together to save themselves. There isn't some grown-up action hero who hears about kids being victimised and then rides to the rescue. It's really about the kids having to bond together and figure out what they're good at, what they can do, and come up with their kind of great escape plan to get out of this. That was incredibly compelling to me. The Parkland kids and the school shootings are something that we still deal with in the United States that, thank God, you guys [the interview was conducted in London] don't have to deal with in the same way. Every political party, certainly in the United States, but in every country, is always talking about how they're doing it for the kids, whatever they're doing or justifying. It's always for the kids and their future. And yet, almost none of them ever really consult the kids. It felt like we had an opportunity to do that with this book. That's one of the brilliant things about Stephen's book. JB: Also, I just want to say, as in terms of Ben Barnes's character Tim and his wounds, that's something Benjamin, as our head writer, and our illustrious writing team, came up with and pitched. Tim's saving himself first from the wound he's experiencing, and that has let him into that small town. We wanted Tim to be close to The Institute so that we could focus more on him as well. The writing team came up with numerous great pitches, and Stephen ultimately said, 'Yeah, that's a good idea.' Stephen has been wildly supportive and loved every script and every episode that we've done. He's a big fan of the show. Courtesy of Geek Vibes Nation You sent him a few episodes first, and then he came on board. Is that true? JB: Well, I sent him the first episode and a promo reel, and he went, 'Oh, my God, this is so great.' After reading a couple of scripts, he said, 'I love this. I love the kids.' The fact that they're a little older in the book, except for Avery, the youngest, who's the same age. It's great. He just loved what we were up to, which is incredibly gratifying. BC: King always has the option of taking an executive producer credit on a show, but he rarely does it. He only does it when he genuinely wants to endorse the product. And that has been gratifying because he also cares deeply about this book, in part because of the kids and what it says about them. He writes wonderfully about kids and teenagers, and having him agree to be an executive producer on this and endorse what we had done was endlessly gratifying. As you already mentioned, the kids play a significant role in this series. How did the casting process go for the roles, and then how did you eventually end up with Joe Freeman, who is amazing? JB: He's amazing. I want to give credit to Seth Yanklewitz, who connected us. He was the head of casting for MGM+. We were looking for the kid and not finding him because he had to be the linchpin. He had to be the one who made us believe him and care about his character; otherwise, the show would not have its centre, no matter how brilliant the show is. Seth connected us to a wonderful casting director. We found Joe during our first round of kids casting in London. He had never acted before. This is his first experience. From the moment we saw that tape, we went, 'Wow, that's the kid'. I loved working with him. While he was tall, he possessed a youthful quality that ensured the character was the age we needed him to be. Joe was an exceptional find. For the rest of the kids around him, we wanted to feel like we were eavesdropping on real kids. We wanted it to be real kids. Some of the actors we cast had never acted before, while others were theatre actors, and a few weren't. I'm proud of our cast, as they deliver credible and authentic performances. BC: I agree. Jack and I were saying to each other from the very beginning of this, 'Where are we going to find these kids? And especially, where are we going to find Luke?' Just because, based on the book, you're going to have to ask so much of this kid. He had to portray all these different emotions and endure so much, and he needed to be the linchpin of the series. That was our concern. Our overarching concern when we developed this and wrote the pilot was, 'Where are we going to find this kid?' As soon as we saw Joe's audition tape, it was like, 'Yes, we found him.' JB: And he's surrounded by a great cast. For example, Mary-Louise Parker is our villain. She can manipulate you, charm you, and be brilliant. I've worked with her on Mr. Mercedes , and we loved working together. I've described her at times as a thoroughbred. She'll give you on-screen moments that are so unexpected without being over the top. The moments are grounded but are out of the box enough. She's exceptional at finding believability in the world of eccentricity and does deliver that. You believe her and hate her, and we're allowed to harbour those feelings. And Ben Barnes, in a different way, carries that wounded quality without being self-pitying at all and gives a wounded yet strong performance. He's out there to do a good job as a nightknocker. Whoever heard of that job, which I think Stephen King invented. The Institute is out on the 13th of July on MGM+
Yahoo
2 hours ago
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