Review of The Lazarus Effect (2015) by Lexi D — 02 Mar 2015

There are some horror films that are only fun for die-hard genre freaks... Like me. The Lazarus Effect is a perfect example of this. Its script, its characters, and its scares all feel too recycled to really be extremely interesting, and the visuals aren't so stunning that it will seem groundbreaking either. What I enjoyed most about The Lazarus Effect was the cast that was working really hard to sell this material.

From Mark Duplass, who is consistently good, to Olivia Wilde, who is the absolute best thing about this movie, to Evan Peters, who is quickly becoming one of the most interesting actors I get to watch, the entire cast of the Lazarus Effect are sold out to their characters. Even if the characters seem a little too stereotypical for a horror film, the cast sold them to me from the get go. So when the inevitable killing one-by-one part came, I was actually invested in what happened.

Also, director David Gelb, who surprisingly made Jiro Dreams of Sushi, handled the tone of the film really well. There were some really creepy moments in the film, and a couple of jump-scares that were effectively under-played, instead of feeling cheap. Gelb seemed pretty adept at handling the horror material, and I would love to see him get a better script to direct. The Lazarus Effect will be hated by most who aren't already sold out on the genre, but for horror fans, you could do worse.