Apt Pupil Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
If you don't believe in the existence of evil, you've got a lot to learn.
Todd, an up and coming top graduate, discovers an old Nazi War Criminal living in his town. His morbid curiosity entices him to blackmail the Nazi to tell him more about the war. A strange cat and mouse friendship develops, with disturbing results.
| Brad Renfro | Todd Bowden |
| Ian McKellen | Kurt Dussander |
| Joshua Jackson | Joey |
| Mickey Cottrell | Sociology Teacher |
| Michael Reid MacKay | Nightmare Victim |
| Ann Dowd | Monica Bowden |
| Bruce Davison | Richard Bowden |
| James Karen | Victor Bowden |
| Marjorie Lovett | Agnes Bowden |
| David Cooley | Gym Teacher |
| Blake Anthony Tibbetts | Teammate |
| Heather McComb | Becky Trask |
| Katherine Malone | Student |
| Grace Sinden | Secretary |
| David Schwimmer | Edward French |
| Bryan Singer |
6.50 out of 10 (14667 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Well-done psychological horror film ...
posted on 27 Aug 20091st watched 8/15/1999 - 8 out of 10 (Dir-Bryan Singer): Well-done psychological horror film based on a Stephen King novella about a former Nazi war criminal's relationship with a young teenager fascinated with the subject.Scary mainly because of it's thought provoking premise rather than blood and gore.
What Is Evil?...
posted on 13 Aug 2009I loved Stephen King's Different Seasons, except for one thing. I always thought that the story APT PUPIL was about fifty pages too long. The film version takes care of this concern, distilling PUPIL down to it's basic elements: old evil passing itself on to a young, all too eager student. Ian McKellen (yep, Gandolf himself!) is perfectly, quietly malevolent as the ancient nazi war criminal, hiding out in suburbia. Brad Renfro plays Todd Bowden, the normal-looking high school kid, concealing a darkness that appears to be insatiable and without limits. Todd fools his family, friends, and guidance counselor (David Schwimmer), into believing he is just another highly gifted teenager. In reality, he is a sociopathic wretch, coasting along by gaining the misplaced trust of others. Studying the holocaust in history class brings out Todd's blackened interior, causing him to hunt down and ensnare McKellen's character. What follows is a study of twisted evil in the midst of apparent normalcy. Todd and his "teacher" develop a seemingly symbiotic relationship that is in actuality purely parasitic. They are destroying each others souls. APT PUPIL's horror lies in it's use of demonic evil in broad daylight. Most of the movie is played out in the sunny afternoon. Evil doesn't wait for nightfall. It hides in plain sight, looking clean-cut and well-adjusted...
Sinister
posted on 06 Aug 2009Wow, what a dark movie! The setting and the atmosphere is wonderfully staged. The interaction between Brad Renfro and Ian McKellen is perfidious, the way they control and manipulate each other is shrewd. It's not so much the visual horror, but the psychological terror that infiltrates their minds. The clinical calculating and the subtle viciousness of both main characters make this movie sinister. Thus the acting to attain this effect has to be very good, what it is indeed. Well thought-through, nice cast, straight acting. It's a fine game of cat-and-mouse, sometimes you don't even know who is in control and who is controlled. I think this one does justice to the original artwork by Stephen King, though the very end differs a bit.
Compelling but pointless....
posted on 04 Aug 2009Yes, this is a very compelling story and film. An arrogant boy enters into a mind game with a Nazi war criminal. Through the relationship, the old war criminal rediscovers his lust for power, and the boy is instructed on how to be a better user... a control freak who sees people as nothing more than inanimate pawns.
Behind it all, an odd, homosexual subtext seems to excite both the boy and the old Nazi.
When all is said and done, one is left feeling frustrated. Where did the film leave us? We're abandoned in the land of amorality! The film almost celebrrates the embracing of cruelity. Young "Tod" is now off to conquer the world, grinding all who stand in his way into the dirt. Whoopie.
Even on this review board, some brag of being "like Tod," and appauld the message of "power through cruelity."
Any analysis of evil falls short, when said analysis fails to illustrate the ultimate consequence of evil...that being the destruction of self.
Jeff Messenger, author, "The Shroud of Torrington."
Singer captures the King story brilliantly
posted on 28 Jul 2009It is always nerve wracking to see a favorite story turned into a movie. This movie is haunting -- just like the story in spirit. If the details of the story were brought to the screen, it would play something like "Nightmare on Elm Street." The changes made to the story's details were required to capture the same haunting horrifying quality -- that these people are our neighbors -- or maybe you and me ... . Brad Renfro was great. Ian McKellen was wonderful beyond words. Another triumph for Singer.
Nothing that big
posted on 01 Jul 2009I usually don't care if a movie changes stuff from the book. I mean who wants to have the same exact story twice. But the one thing in this movie that they changed that I hated is that in the book Todd Bowman was much scarier and evil. The movie picked up towards the end. But again they changed the awesome ending that was in the book. I thought that the first half was a bit boring. This movie is about a young boy named Todd bowman who becomes interested in the holocaust. He blackmails a former Nazi man named Arthur Denker. Arthur Denker begins to tell story's that makes the kid has extreme nightmares and a drop in school grades. Then Mr. Denker blackmails Todd.The movie got a lot better towards the end it picked up but I thought that the very end was bad because I read the book and the book's ending was so much better. I give this movie 5 out of 10 because Todd was not as scary as in the book and the beginning was very boring. Flashbacks may have helped a lot better. If I hadn't read the book I probably would have like the movie better.
what hype can do for a movie....
posted on 25 Jun 2009Brian Singer's Usual Suspects; arguably one of the best who done-its ever made. Apt Pupil should have been an hour long mini-series on ABC. The film didn't stand up to any of my expectations. It was too long, far too slow, and I kept finding myself fast-forwarding through most of the movie. The ending was slightly redeeming, but if it wasn't for my dog barking, I probably would have slept right through it. Overall a huge disappointment. Rating: 4
Not as good as the book, but still worth watching
posted on 25 Jun 2009I just finished reading the book and very much enjoyed it and was very tense and disturbing. I just recently watched the film and I did enjoy it but not as much as I hoped.The story kept to the same as the book but i wish they added all the character development like the book, they did add a bit but not as much. The great thing is all the characters from the book are in the film, but I wished we could have seen more of their backgrounds and history. The film does keep you involved in a general way and gives the gist of everything, which is another good thing.Ian Mckellen's performance was excellent as the part of Kurt Dussander. Brad Renfro did very well as well.Filming was very good, especially the editing which was one of the best things.Overall, it was a good film but I would recommend reading the book first before watching the film
Very Disappointing (Spoiler)
posted on 25 Jun 2009Funny that Stephen King's short stories generally make for better movies than his novels. Unfortunately, this is one of the exceptions.Its biggest failing is at the end. In the story, Todd Bowden kills Ed French; here, he instead decides to accuse him (wrongly) of being gay and to threaten him with exposure on that score. Why? The original ending added to the overall grimness that made the story so memorable; this change is just pointless.Up to then, the story meanders rather. Brad Renfro is a pallid protagonist, though Ian McKellen is a convincing and chilling villain.A missed opportunity then. For better examples of films based on King short stories, see "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Stand By Me".Rating: 3/10
Apt Pupil
posted on 18 May 2009Normaly I feel cheated when the end of a movie is different then the book. This was rare exception. I won't spoil anything, but suffice to say what made the movie more scary is that fact "the Evil" lived on. See the movie, then read the book if you think I'm a clueless [person].
I expected more
posted on 26 Apr 2009This is an example how complicated it is to make a movie based on a Stephen King book. But I'd read a lot of good comments about the movie, and the actors were good, so I went to see it and all I saw was a wrong way to translate Stephen King's work. He is complicated, strange, and the movie was too simple. just Stanley Kubrick could take the main idea of King's literature on the shining.
a very hard movie to watch
posted on 12 Mar 2009This whole movie is about Nazi. But it goes much more deeper than that. The whole idea of the movie is to show as that there is almost nothing that keeps us from doing something. Like killing.Brad Renfros character changes through the movie. From being naive to being a man who he once wanted to know about.
"Now we'll see what you're made of."
posted on 19 Feb 2009Two characters, with good and evil in both, are locked in a relationship in which each cultivates the evil potential of the other. One is an old hand at this game, and the other is new at it-- but the newbie made the opening move. This is the unusual situation in the film. Without it we would be left with unwholesome games which go on in every schoolyard every day.In other words, there but for the grace of God go you or I. Can you stand to look at the Kurt & Todd lurking in yourself? Watch this film, and see what you're made of.
Interesting, but a little too over the top to be taken seriously...
posted on 19 Feb 2009"Apt Pupil" is well directed, with some interesting themes of power lust and evil feeding on itself, and great acting by Brad Renfro and Sir Ian McKellan, but I was put off by the very loose holds on reality. The plot alone is full of insane coincidences (a kid obsessed with the Holocaust just happens to bump into a Nazi war criminal, and that war criminal just happens to share a hospital room with one of his victims), but even the characterizations are a stretch. Renfro's character is very odd, and there is no given reason for why he is so naturally evil. And while it is hard enough to accept that McKellan would be bursting with evil 40 years later, with no hint of remorse (or even insight) about his past, it is completely ridiculous to assume he would be spending his evenings gassing cats and killing homeless people. The direction and acting make it worth watching, but in the end, I just couldn't take this overly serious movie seriously.
A disappointing movie that didn't do much for me
posted on 10 Feb 2009Sir Ian McKellan and Brad Renfro star in this film about what happened during the second world war through the eyes of a Nazi war criminal. Brad Renfro plays Todd Bowden a student who wants to probe into the life of a nazi war criminal who lives next door to him. Todd uses everything he can to get info from Arthur Dussander played by McKellan. Todd uses blackmail in order to get what he wants but it soon backfires as McKellan reverses the game as he plays with Todd's mind. This movie missed with me because all it did was skate around what happened and instead of taking something away from it, I saw nothing but psychological games being played that didn't quite cut it for me. If I wanted to see better psychological games I could have rented The Silence Of The Lambs. Apt Pupil wasted the talents of McKellan and Renfro with a lame story. It had a lot of room for improvement. This is not a movie I would jump out of my seat and go to the video store to rent the movie again. * out of ****
Could have been better
posted on 04 Feb 2009The original novella by Stephen King was one of the most powerful things I've ever read. I still can't bring myself to read it a lot because it really gets inside you. One would expect Bryan Singer, who did such an excellent job with THE USUAL SUSPECTS, to capture that power, but for some reason, it doesn't. This is not to say this is a terrible movie; far from it. Both lead performances are quite good, and when Singer sticks close to the story, it works. But he cops out in too many places, especially near the end. Overall, good, but could have been much better.
all the Reich moves
posted on 01 Feb 2009In an adaptation of one of Stephen King's most unusual stories, high school student Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) gets acquainted with Nazi fugitive Kurt Dussander (Ian McKellen) and blackmails him. But as the acquaintanceship continues, Todd's curiosity begins to get the better of him, and his interest in his subject starts going too far, to the point where he can start manipulating everyone around him.McKellen does as good a job in "Apt Pupil" as he's done in pretty much every movie, although his role here is much grimmer than his other ones. It just goes to show what a great actor he is. His performance will probably leave you chilled. And that boy sure had no morality. Also starring Joshua Jackson, Ann Dowd, Bruce Davison, James Karen, David Schwimmer and Joe Morton.
Apt Pupil is an interesting film
posted on 30 Aug 2009This movie was pretty good. Sometimes it was hard to understand, but at the same time interesting. All in all a pretty good movie. I give this movie **1/2 out of ****