A new Netflix documentary explores the CIA’s LSD mind control experiments

Netflix will release a new documentary miniseries called Wormwood this month helmed by Errol Morris, director of The Thin Blue Line and The Fog Of War, that looks into the shady dealings of the CIA and its Project MKUltra human experiments.

The operation which began in the early 1950s and was officially halted in 1973 saw the CIA using unknowing people as test subjects in an attempt to develop mind-controlling drugs to use against the Soviets.

One unwitting test subject was Frank Olson, a bacteriologist and CIA employee, who was clandestinely dosed with LSD by a superior, and died nine days later after falling to his death from a New York City hotel room window.

His death was ruled as suicide by the US government, which many people refuse to accept, including Olson’s son Eric who has devoted the majority of his life (over 60 years) to trying to establish the true circumstances of his father’s death and foil a suspected CIA cover-up.

Eric’s family was awarded a $750,000 settlement nearly two decades after Frank’s death.

Wormwood combines interview segments with dramatic reenactments starring Peter Sarsgaard, Molly Park and Bob Balaban. It’s out on December 15; check out a trailer below.

[Via: Independent]

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Staff Writer, follow him on Twitter