Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Graphic
- bleak
- tense
- paranoid
- dark thriller night
- serious science fiction viewing
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Dr. Copeland administers Anagress to alter Lee Ray Oliver's violent tendencies, making pharmaceutical behavior control the central ethical conflict.
Lee Ray's emerging guilt follows both incarceration and experimental drug treatment, raising questions about whether moral change can be engineered.
The prison, morgue, laboratories, and medical facilities repeatedly restrict Lee Ray while authorities decide his bodily fate.
The speculative element is limited to Anagress and its behavioral effects, while the story remains rooted in death penalty procedures, prison life, and clinical testing.
Films like Control, and why
The Experiment
shared prison setting, criminal rehabilitation premise, and morally serious thriller tone
A Clockwork Orange
shared medical experimentation, altered behavior, and paranoid science fiction thriller elements
The Jacket
shared violent protagonist, institutional control, and bleak redemption drama
Movie Details
- Director
- Tim Hunter
- Release Date
- 2004-12-07
- Runtime
- 104 min
- Rating
- 6.1 / 10 (199)
Cast
- Ray Liotta
- Willem Dafoe
- Michelle Rodriguez
- Stephen Rea
- Polly Walker
- Kathleen Robertson
- Tim DeKay
- Mark Pickard
- Stewart Alexander
- Glenn Wrage
Common questions
- What is Control about?
- A condemned sociopath becomes the unwilling subject of an experimental drug designed to suppress violence, forcing an uneasy confrontation with remorse and responsibility.
- What is Control like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Control as brisk, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Control violent?
- Yes. Ember rates the violence in Control as graphic.
- Which films are like Control?
- Films with a similar feel include The Experiment, A Clockwork Orange, and The Jacket.
- How long is Control?
- Control runs 104 minutes.
