The Lazarus Effect (2015) Directed by David Gelb. Starring: Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass, Evan Peters. IMDB says: “A group of medical students discover a way to bring dead patients back to life.”
I was interested in seeing The Lazarus Effect because the trailer I saw was intriguing. The story didn’t seem like anything new, but the cast seemed more varied than a run-of-the-mill horror movie. It made me think that there may be something about the film that drew these people. Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, and Donald Glover all seem to have career trajectories that don’t line up too often. They play a group of scientists working on a serum to prolong the window that doctors have to resuscitate a patient before brain damage occurs. However, what they discover is a way to bring dead things back to life.
After a corporation buys out the organization that originally gave them their research grant, they lose access to their lab and all of their work through a loophole. They sneak into the lab to duplicate the experiment so they can claim the serum as their creation and maintain their reputations. During this experiment, Zoey is accidentally killed and the serum is used to bring her back to life (with unforeseen consequences).
Zoey (Olivia Wilde) is religious and mixes her belief in science with her faith in Christianity. Frank (her fiancée, played by Mark Duplass) fully believes there are scientific explanations for everything and playfully teases Zoey about her faith. After she is brought back to life she mentions what she saw in the afterlife. Along with this knowledge, and the fact that the serum continues to work on her brain longer than necessary, Zoey becomes a creature unlike her normal self. She begins to cause havoc in the laboratory.
One issue I had with the movie is how quickly it was over. Once Zoey is revived, the movie is quick to wrap up. I feel like there were additional things they could’ve touched on without dragging down the pacing. Aside from the parts of the story that delve into a reoccurring dream Zoey has in the beginning of the film, the second half of the movie is not as gripping as I would’ve hoped based off how much I enjoyed the first half. Overall, it just doesn’t feel as full as other Blumhouse films I’ve seen.
The pseudo science isn’t as far out as what’s used in movies like Lucy, but it had its fair share of moments that were pushing it. The religious aspects added an interesting twist that differentiated this from the typical science fiction horror movie, but the movie wraps up before it can be totally effective. None of this prevents the movie from being a fun watch, it just prevents it from reaching its potential.
The recipe for The Lazarus Effect looks promising, you take Flatliners, mix with The Exorcist, add a dash of Pet Semetary and a pinch of Lucy and there you have it. But unfortunately, what comes out of the oven isn’t all that appetizing. The Lazarus Effect isn’t a horrible movie, but it certainly isn’t a great one either. TLE stars Olivia Wilde and Mark Duplass as a couple of researchers working on a serum that brings the dead back to life (never a good idea). Through a series of unfortunate events, Wilde’s character is killed leaving Duplass and other members of the research team (Evan Peters, Donald Glover, and Sarah Bolger) with a very big question, do they use this experimental serum to save the life of their friend? Of course they do and all hell (literally) breaks loose.
I didn’t hear much about the movie prior to watching it so I went it with no expectations; I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the cast. All of them were solid actors whose work I’ve seen before with the exception of Bolger. A positive thing I can say about TLE is that it does have decent acting; everyone was believable and did well in their roles given the script. Wilde is a standout in the film and she should be, she has the most substantial role. TLE has a few good jump scares but a large amount of the scares in the movie were quite predictable. The movie has great pacing, coming in at about 80 minutes it gets right to the story without a lot of filler, the science aspect of the movie is explained without weighing down the film. By absolute coincidence, when I got home from TLE I saw a trailer for it (something I hadn’t seen prior to watching the movie) and lo and behold the whole damn movie is in the trailer, an annoyance that is becoming far too commonplace.
All in all, I have to say that The Lazarus Effect is a pretty forgetful movie. There are worse ways to spend an hour and a half, but there are far better ways too. It’s not so awful to invoke disdain but it’s not good enough to incite praise; the term ‘meh’ was invented for this movie. TLE is the kind of film that you would throw on while doing laundry and cleaning on a rainy Saturday. TLE is the second big horror release this year right behind The Woman In Black sequel (which was panned on Rotten Tomatoes) and if this is setting the tone for Horror in 2015 its going to be a long year.
