Spiderhead (2022)

Spiderhead is a state-of-the-art penitentiary experimenting with the effects of research chemicals. The test subjects, technically prisoners of the state, are volunteers for the project aiming to reduce their sentence time. The program is overseen by the sympathetic and hospitable Steve Abnesti, along with his assistant Mark. The prisoners have their own rooms, do chores, and are free to roam without guard supervision. The subjects go through daily test runs of various drugs, all of which alter their emotions and their perceptions of their surroundings. Inmate Jeff, still reeling from having killed his friend whilst drunk driving, is given N-40, a “love drug”, which distorts his senses and drives him to have sex with two of his fellow inmates. Steve asks him to choose which one of them to give Darkenfloxx, a drug that induces intense fear and psychological pain.

He declines to choose, claiming he feels nothing in particular for either one of them after the effects of the love drug had worn off. The next day, Steve tells him that the “higher ups” have chosen that he and the younger of the two women, Heather, must be injected with a dose, though it will only last five minutes. Jeff reluctantly agrees, and to his horror, Heather commits suicide while on the Darkenfloxx after she damages her MobiPak, the device that administers the drugs. This causes Mark to doubt their work in the facility. As Steve rushes out of the projection room, he drops his keys. Jeff unlocks Steve’s desk compartment, discovering that there are no “higher-ups”: the prison is run by Abnesti Pharmaceuticals. The drugs were named from a bingo card.