If there’s one thing Stephen King knows, it’s how to write stories about psychic kids. From Danny Torrance (The Shining) to Charlie McGee (Firestarter), the Master of Horror’s early work is filled with precocious children able to infiltrate the minds of those around them and set the world on fire with telekinetic power. King returned to this signature archetype in 2019 with The Institute, a sci-fi horror story about a deadly home for powerful kids. Showrunners Jack Bender and Ben Cavell have adapted this polarizing novel in a limited series for MGM+ that blends YA dystopia with King’s patented brand of heart-wrenching terror. Though engaging and well-made, the series falls short in exploring its source material, merely repacking King’s themes in a glossy new package.
Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman) is a pre-teen genius preparing to go to MIT when he wakes up one morning in a strange environment. The bedroom is identical to his own except for bars on the window and an industrial hallway outside the door. A friendly girl named Kalisha (Simone Miller) explains that he’s the newest guest of the Institute, a temporary home for exceptional kids.
Administrator Ms. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker) discloses that Luke has been conscripted to save the world for a couple of weeks after which he’ll be returned to his parents with his memory wiped. But Luke’s outsized intellect will not allow him to believe these assertions and fellow resident Nick (Fionn Laird) only amplifies his doubts. When an extremely powerful child psychic named Avery (Viggo Hanvelt) joins their disillusioned ranks, the Institute’s young prisoners begin hatching a plan to save themselves.
Adapting a King tale is never easy, but Bender and Cavell make a few wise alterations. While Luke contends with his torturous captors, an ex-cop named Tim (Ben Barnes) catches on as the night knocker in a small Maine town neighboring the sinister compound. As the tiny community’s newest member, he begins forming bonds with unlikely allies and investigating the mysterious facility. Bender and Cavell move this plotline north from South Carolina, negating some of the novel’s messy logistics. Unlike King’s version which sidelines Tim for hundreds of pages, we follow this likeable everyman as his path slowly winds its way closer to Luke. We’re also introduced to an undercover agent posing as a reporter in the idyllic town and learn more about the troubled Annie (Mary Walsh) who spouts conspiracy theories from her back alley tent.
But the most engaging action lies within the Institute’s stark walls. Set Decorator Brian Enman nails the industrial feel of this ominous place while Parker sets an unnerving tone. The wing known as Front Half feels like a glorified prison with a bare-bones playground and an unending supply of cigarettes. Periodic birthday parties celebrate each child’s graduation to the wing known as Back Half, said to precede the promised trip back home. But this promotion feels more like a death sentence and no one who ventures past Front Half’s locked doors ever returns to tell the tale. A youthful tone occasionally clashes with daker themes and each episode strikes an uneasy balance between YA intrigue and overt adult horror that includes shocking scenes of extreme child torture.
YA stories live and die by their casts and The Institute is filled with likeable young actors. Freeman and Miller stand out in particular, elevating their sometimes cringeworthy literary counterparts. They’re balanced by a standout adult cast which includes genre veterans Julian Richings and Robert Joy alongside the always intriguing Parker. This Ms. Sigsby has much more emotional depth than the novel’s icy and compassionless commander. We’re teased with a sympathetic backstory and brief glimpses of her solitary home, but uneven characterization mars this empathy and we’re left confused by her murky motives. Perhaps with less time spent in the neighboring small town, we could truly dig into the Institute’s personnel, but two locations filled to the brim leaves little time for character study.
Plotlines become a bit unwieldy as we follow our unfortunate characters into the dreaded Back Half. Action sequences become exponentially complex and Bender and Cavell struggle to explain the logistics of the center’s primary weapon. We’re presented with a fascinating and timely philosophical dilemma, but get very little time to evaluate the ethics of the Institute’s purpose. King’s novel is a messy exploration of moral relativism and humanity’s tendency to sacrifice its own. While these topics are faithfully represented, the show feels strangely devoid of its own moral center and fails to say anything of lasting value. The Institute is a bingeworthy and exciting series filled with compelling performances and genuine horror that fails to present an argument for its own existence. All the ingredients are there for a stellar adaptation, but we’re missing the indescribable spark required for the story to ever truly soar.
The first two episodes of The Institute are now streaming on MGM+.
