Friday, June 19, 2015

Blu-ray Review: The Lazarus Effect



The Lazarus Effect
Director: David Gelb
Starring: Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, Evan Peters and Sarah Bolger
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release Date: June 23, 2015
ASIN: B00VUK505O
Running Time: 83 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Now available to own on Blu-ray and Digital HD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the horror-thriller The Lazarus Effect. Directed by David Gelb, the film stars Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, Evan Peters and Sarah Bolger. Special Features include Creating Fear: The Making of The Lazarus Effect, Playing God: The Moral Dilemma and deleted/extended scenes.

The Lazarus Effects centers on Frank Walton (played by Mark Duplass), his girlfriend Zoe McConnell (played by Olivia Wilde) and a small group of researchers - Clay (played by Evan Peters), Niko (played by Donald Glover) and Eva (played by Sarah Bolger), whom are trying to create a serum that will bring the dead back to life.

Despite several setbacks, including the dean of the university cutting off their funding, the group successfully brings a dog back from the dead, proving in fact that their serum actually works. While sneaking back into the laboratory late at night, Zoe is accidentally electrocuted, so to save her the team injects the serum into her.

Before Zoe is resurrected, she went to her own version of hell and when she comes back to the living, she is a completely different person - bringing death with her.



In a cross between Wes Craven's Deadly Friend and Flatliners, The Lazarus Effects kicks off as an intense horror-thriller, but once Olivia Wilde's character is resurrected the script is all over the place; becoming extremely confusing at times. At the short running time of 83 minutes, the film was most likely heavily edited before it was released to theaters earlier this year; a similar situation that occurs with many horror flicks. The acting for the most part was decent, but the supporting characters don't have much to do, but to be killed off one by one. In the end, The Lazarus Effect is a mixed bag that never really offers anything by the time the predictable cliffhanger ending rolls on screen. Now, I'm not saying it's a complete waste of time, as it's slightly better than the recent slew of PG-13 horror films.



*Disclaimer - I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.


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