Lazarus Effect

Like I said in my Wild Card review, sometimes I don't get why movies get such low ratings on here. I have seen plenty of movies that deserves a 5 or lower, this is not one of them.

This movie is short and sweet. It is entertaining, never boring, cool stuff happens, actors are good. I got certain Hollow Man vibes.. A team is working on some amazing stuff, and the environments (labs and such) are just nice and cozy.

I don't think The Lazarus Effect was meant to be a big, thought provoking masterpiece, it was meant as a short and entertaining horror flick. And it is exactly that. It's got a couple of actors we've seen before, (including the very cute Olivia Wilde) which always helps in this kind of horror quick fix.

So, to sum up, don't expect very big things, expect a couple of jump scares, a nicely paced plot, decent effects.. It's just easily seen. (translated directly from Norwegian: 'lettsett')

TA group of scientists led by romantic couple Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde are working on a project to briefly restore brain function in clinically dead patients in hopes of allowing medical professionals longer time to work on critical patients. Their experiments seem to work better than expected when a revived dog continues to live long after the effect of its treatment should have worn off. When a laboratory accident electrocutes one of their own, the others decide to use the technique on the deceased, with seeming success. But they soon realize that something is not quite right with their colleague.

The movie has some style, and some creepy moments, but it works better when the story flirts with how guilt and religion can effect one's psyche in positive and negative ways. The cast is fine, although it was odd seeing the usually funny Duplass in a straight-faced role.

A team of researchers discovers a serum that can wake the dead. They try it out on a dead dog and sure enough it comes to life, a bit in a bad mood more but nonetheless. Then the university shuts down the program and a corporation takes over and grabs all their research.

They decide to break into the lab and recreate the experiment by resurrecting another dog, this time around with a girl who gets to film everything. When Zoe, one of the doctors, flips on the switch she's electrocuted and dies. Her fiancée can't accept it so he decides to experiment on her and see if he can reanimate her. Sure enough, she also comes back but also not particularly thankful.

There's also something else going on with Zoe. When she was a little girl, she witnessed a room-full of people burn to death when the apartment caught fire and she couldn't help them. She's been traumatized by the experience till now. Slowly though, she starts developing powers. She can complete other people's sentences, she develops telekinesis. And eventually she starts killing her team mates. Of course she takes out the power so it's all dark. The survivors will try to battle her.

At some point the camera girl is taken to the event of the burning apartment and there's a neat revelation.

The Lazarus Effect is a short horror movie with a good premise and the lovely Olivia Wilde. One bit of science was pretty intriguing. But from there things go by the numbers--no lights, people confined in one or two rooms, no character to care for, no interesting dialogue. The movie is well-directed although clearly they could and should have done more with the story.

Sadly this is an ultimately unrewarding film, to read the plot, you'd be forgiven for expecting something dark, original and interesting, when in reality it's generic, flat, and badly realised.

The production values are a little poor, and the storytelling is disjointed, lacks any sort of core plot, at times it seemed to make no sense.

A few times they could have gone for real scares and horror, sadly no such moments ever happened. The dog could have been good.

Quite poor. 4/10

Any five to ten minute excerpt from this movie could easily lead a viewer to conclude that this is a well made horror or suspense thriller. The production values are high, the performances good, and so on.

The problem is that the parts of the film don't fit together. The sequence of action has the usual slow build and accelerating pace of any good thriller, but while the set-up is promising, and the events proceed logically enough as interesting and sympathetic characters are frightened, threatened or killed off, the reasons underlying the events remain obscure.

Hints and suggestive exposition are introduced, and then forgotten. There are explicit references to religious-themed horror fantasy, speculative science, and even a few elements of a possible conspiracy. An elaborate backstory is gradually revealed, and then abruptly dismissed. The conclusion doesn't really conclude anything: there's a decisive ending, but no resolution, no revelation, not even a clear idea of the probable consequences.

It's possible a re-edit could address these issues and make it a decent film. As it stands, though, it just doesn't work.