Horror platform Alter first added horror short Laboratory Conditions for Halloween viewing — but it’s so good we wanted to share it anyway. Spider-Man’s Marisa Tomei stars as a doctor whose hunt for a missing patient leads her to discover an unusual experiment being conducted in a remote corner of her hospital.
Directed by Jocelyn Stamat and written by Terry Rossio, Laboratory Conditions also stars Minnie Driver (The Witcher: Blood Origin) and Paolo Costanzo (The Expanse).
It’s a bit familiar, but spooky all the same; that cliffhanger is particularly effective. The big-name cast is also impressive, with Tomei bringing a lot of layers to her character — especially when she realises she’s the only person in the room who can see her patient’s ghost.
The official synopsis: “At a hospital, late one night, a physician discovers that one of her patients is missing, and likely has passed away, as he was not expected to survive the night. The physician tracks the body to a nearby medical school, where students are in the midst of an illicit experiment. The physician faces an ethical dilemma that puts her clinical judgment up against the amoral ambition of the chair of the graduate school of neuroscience. Even if the doctor can save her patient, what about the next one? And the one after that? At what point should human compassion outweigh research science and ‘the need to know’?”
While you’re here, why not check out Gizmodo Australia’s guide to what’s streaming this month on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Stan, Binge and more. We’ve also got one for all the good movies coming out in 2023 if that’s more your thing.