The Lazarus Effect (2015)

Genre

Horror

Director

David Gelb

Director

USA

Cast

Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Sarah Bolger, Evan Peters, Donald Glover, Ray Wise, Amy Aquino

Storyline

A group of researchers, led by Frank (Mark Duplass) and his fiancé Zoe (Olivia Wilde), discovers a way to bring dead patients back to life.

Opinion

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The great cast, and the captivating premise made increase my expectation in the film. As a horror's lover, saying I got disappointed isn't enough.

Classified as horror - which is a shame -, The Lazarus Effect lacks originality, is unexciting, dull, extremely obvious and unscary at all. In fact, instead of being scared to death, I was bored to death.

The film does start quite good actually, but as soon as Wilde's character accidentally dies, everything falls. After she resurrects, instead of focusing on her recurring nightmare, writers Luke Dawson and Jeremy Slater thought they should have gave the film the worst, clichéd turn possible. 

So, for a half of the film, all we see is a possessed (?) woman going around killing those who were supposed to be her friends, and the dog, of course. Nearly the end, there is some psychological introspection of the main character, some explanations about her nightmares, but the all thing is rushed. 

And at the very end, the tip of the iceberg: after killing them all, she wants to bring them back to life to turn them into monsters like her - which may imply a sequel.

The camera angles, the lights are no new thing. The musical score fails at adding suspense. The acting is awful. I'm sure they chose Olivia Wilde to distract the audience from the crappy film, but I don't understand how came into her mind to be part of this waste of time, and money.