Blumhouse’s latest horror offering ‘The Lazarus Effect’ boldly steps out somewhere between ‘Flatliners’ and ‘Pet Semetary’ and brings with it a whole host of supernatural tropes for us to feast on. I had been looking forward to this for some time and the trailer certainly had that ‘Flatliners’ feel to it. Ultimately it was a shame to see that this effort generally lacked in any real originality and it’s over use of typical jump scares and lacklustre tension really had a negative impact on the whole viewing experience.
The storyline itself was straightforward enough but even by its conclusion and its unsatisfactory ending it was quite difficult to pinpoint exactly what the purpose of the story actually was. No sooner do we get drip fed the concept of religion and life after death we are then suddenly being led down a more scientifically based pathway of heightened senses and untapped brain activity. No sooner do the characters consider the moral aspects of their activities for us to ponder we are then sat wondering what’s up with the demonic dog. There’s plenty of opposing ideas here but perhaps too many.
There’s plenty of themes and questions raised by the movie however for the most part the story is a little muddled and often doesn’t seem to be quite clear as to what is the best element to focus on. The cast all-round were perfectly adequate although with three of the main cast being better known for their TV roles, with two of the male leads working predominantly in comedy, it was very difficult to try and separate them and accept them in these types of roles altogether. Perhaps it’s a question of general mis-casting or simply the fact that the script really wasn’t padded out with strong enough character development for the actors to sink their teeth into in the first place.
It’s quite difficult to watch ‘The Lazarus Effect’ without seeing the influences of numerous other science-based horror movies. Aside from the aforementioned ‘Flatliners’ there were times when I found myself thinking about ‘Hollow Man’ and ‘Splice’ for example. That’s not to say that there aren’t some glimpses of originality in the story. The storyline and concept itself is an interesting one but does seem bogged down by all the other problems with the movie. Much of the action takes place in the lab itself and gives it a rather ‘bottled’ feeling and something that would possibly work better as a one-off in an episodic supernatural horror series such as ‘The X-Files’ or ‘Supernatural’.
OVERALL SUMMARY
‘The Lazarus Effect’ pulls together an interesting cast all of whom are perfectly suited to their parts, even Mark Duplass (better known for starring in ‘The League’) continues to break away from his comedic background into more dramatic roles. It may be difficult to accept an on-screen beauty such as Olivia Wilde turning bad and sadly however the actual impact of the theme, the scares and the characters leave this one quite a way short.
