Review of The Lazarus Effect (2015) by Orlando O — 14 Jul 2015

The Lazarus Effect is lacking almost about everything from scares, a more reasonable story, and the direction is trying hard to be horrifying but the final results look cheesy.

A story about medical researchers Frank (Mark Duplass) and his fiancà (C)e Zoe (Olivia Wilde) and their team of Niko (Donald Glover), Clay (Evan Peters), and commentary assistant Eva (Sarah Bolger). They try running experiments that goes against the medical science board, when there experiments are trying to bring the deceased back to life. They tempted to bring a dead dog back to life with a serum that reactivates the dead brain activity. An accident happens, that leaves Zoe dead and Frank desperately attempts the experiment on her. Zoe is brought back from the dead. She is not the same person Frank knew and she starts having possession like abilities that is going to menace her own team.

Screen writers Luke Dawson and Jeremy Slater script story does get ridiculous around the third act, which may not make any logical sense. It does use that myth idea about a person using 10 percent of their brains and there serum makes the person brain activity expand beyond that 10 percent. It is supposedly, the horror low budget film version of 2014 Lucy. A laughable plot, and a direction that is so lean on close ups to capture the characters tension, even though the look is rather dull than exciting. Also, there are some scenes that tries to be horrifying, not sure if it was either the bad dialogue or cheesy acting that makes the scene just pure awkward and laughable. Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, Evan Peters, and Sarah Bolger are all great actors and would deserve recognition for trying. There is not really much to try from what they have to work with.

The Lazarus Effect is a horrible science fiction horror film that is cheesy, ridiculous, and lacking on the suspense.