A derivative scientific thriller
"Did I just die?" Those pretty much are the last words you want to hear from your lover. Especially if she's as lovely as Olivia Wilde.
"Did I just die?"
Those pretty much are the last words you want to hear from your lover. Especially if she's as lovely as Olivia Wilde.
That's one of the many unintentionally funny lines in The Lazarus Effect, a creepy thriller that boasts a fine cast, including Mark Duplass, Donald Glover, Sarah Bolger, and Evan Peters, and one of the most derivative scripts this side of the Scary Movie franchise.
Mildly enjoyable despite its basic mediocrity, The Lazarus Effect stars Wilde and Duplass as brilliant research scientists and lovers, named Zoe and Frank who have developed a life-giving serum that can bring the dead to life - just as the slimy fluorescent green stuff did in one of the film's chief inspirations, Re-Animator. (Actually, the couple didn't so much invent the drug as borrow it from the TV show Smallville, where the term Lazarus Serum originated.)
Ably assisted by lab brainiac Clay (Peters) and eye-candy-slash-videographer Eva (Bolger), Frank and Zoe test the drug first on a pig, then on a dog (you know, like in the Stephen King movie Pet Sematary).
They look very handsome throughout - much like the hot young scientists played by Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, and Kiefer Sutherland in that '80s staple, Flatliners.
Things don't turn out so well for Rocky the pooch, and he goes all Cujo (you know, just like in Stephen King).
The team gets one final chance to perfect their drug when the mildly evil corporation that funded their college research is bought out by an, er, eviler corporation whose evilest executives pull the plug on their work.
Disaster strikes. A freak mishap cuts Wilde down and she shuffles off (in a rather sexy manner) this mortal coil.
What's a lover-scientist to do?
Frank gives her the serum. After what seems an eternity, Zoe bolts upright on an autopsy table (well, it looks like one) and asks the wonderful question above.
Zoe is terrified. She's sure she was to hell and back. She fears she should have been left to, um, continue being dead.
The cheap scares pile on as we realize Zoe has brought back with her some evil entity (as in pretty much every single ghost and demon possession story out there).
"That's not Zoe in there," Frank exclaims.
Zoe goes all apocalyptic on her pals, using some seriously sick powers she acquired in hell, including the ability to pull people into her dreams (like Freddy Kruger in Nightmare on Elm Street).
The Lazarus Effect is the latest offering from Jason Blum's wildly successful boutique studio, which gave us the Paranormal Activity franchise, Insidious, Sinister, and The Purge. Blum has been working a good formula in his movies: modest, 1980s-inspired thrillers featuring top talents (Ethan Hawke has been a staple).
But as with all formulas in the EntBiz, this one has gone stale with overuse.
Time for Blum to change it up.
The Lazarus Effect ** (out of four stars)
Directed by David Gelb. With Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass, Evan Peters, Sarah Bolger. Distributed by Relativity Media.
Running time: 1 hour, 23 mins.
Parent's guide: PG-13 (intense sequences of horror, violence, sexuality).
Playing at: area theaters.
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