Director: David Gelb
Starring: Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass, Donald Glover, Evan Peters, Sarah Bolger
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 83 minutes
From Blumhouse Productions, the company that brought us Insidious and Paranormal Activity, comes The Lazarus Effect, but if you’re looking for another poop-your-pants scare then you’re all out of luck with this one, I’m afraid.
Duplass and Wilde star as Frank and Zoe, two top scientists in love. With the help of their team – Clay (Peters), Niko (Glover) and camera-girl Eva (Bolger) – Frank and Zoe work on a serum that’s designed to prolong the life of terminally ill patients, long enough that doctors are able to carry out final end-of-life preparations. By testing it on a deceased dog they find that it works, but with little Rocky acting up (aggression, super strength, disinterested in food) it seems that not everything is right in the world of the undead.
Cut to the team’s work being taken over by a huge pharmaceutical company and it looks like their bubble has been popped – that is until they hatch a plan to duplicate their experiment to prove to the world that the ‘Lazarus’ serum was their idea. After sneaking back into their laboratory they attempt to inject another dead dog…until Zoe is electrocuted. Frank attempts everything to bring her back, but with no response there’s only one thing he can think of to try: the serum. As you can imagine, all hell (literally) breaks loose.
With its opening scene filmed through a ‘video camera’, paying homage to the found-footage genre, and with its opening credits taking inspiration from popular US gore series American Horror Story, The Lazarus Effect sets up early its intentions. Flitting between a standard film camera style and footage taken from security cameras, you’re invited to feel as if you’re privy to a big secret, part of a group looking to change the world. However, with the stilted acting and predictable narrative The Lazarus Effect fails to frighten even the scardiest of cats (e.g. me). It feels as if everyone involved is just moving through the motions, with every ‘shock’ expected or guessed beforehand, leaving the audience feeling deflated and disappointed. The relationship between Frank and Zoe isn’t believable and the characters of Clay and Niko just seem to exist for functionality (you’ll see why if you hold on until the end). Sarah Bolger‘s Eva is, as expected, the stereotypical damsel in distress, resembling every other female victim in every horror movie ever, leaving the casting and character development feeling rushed and almost lazy. With names such as Wilde, Duplass and Peters involved you’d expect something a little more, but sadly not in case of The Lazarus Effect.
With its predictable plot line, characters and scares, The Lazarus Effect is a major let-down for any Blumhouse Productions fans, especially those looking for something with a little ‘star power’ behind it. If a horror/thriller fails to scare even me then you know something’s wrong!
The Lazarus Effect is released on DVD and Blu-ray from Monday 19th October 2015.
