The movie is painfully short on moments of visceral horror and that, coupled with a jumbled and confusing ending, makes The Lazarus Effect a fundamentally unsatisfying experience. Gelb tries mightily to use jump-cuts, fake-outs, and darkness to enhance the mood and provoke gasps and shrieks, but few of his attempts work. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of David Gelb's production isn't the intelligence cliff-dive taken by the screenplay but the lack of suspense and scares. This is, after all, a mainstream horror movie of the PG-13 variety and, as such, is subject to the requisite clichés. It was probably too much to hope that the high-minded ideals espoused by the early scenes of The Lazarus Effect would make it all the way to the end. What begins as an intriguing blend of such diverse sources as Frankenstein, the 1990 Julia Roberts/Kiefer Sutherland thriller Flatliners, and a 1966 episode of Star Trek ("Where No Man Has Gone Before") turns into a standard-order assortment of "boo!" moments and freakish makeup. As with most Blumhouse pics, the door is left open for sequels (whether you want them or not).The Lazarus Effect begins with an intriguing premise then proceeds to squander all the early goodwill through a slow, inexorable descent into cheap horror gimmicks. Unfortunately, that leaves several subplots unresolved - including the fate of that poor zombie dog! - and the story feels incomplete. Honestly, it could have been longer, but the film happily forgoes dilly-dallying and gets straight to killing. That's a perfect length for a movie like this, which almost entirely takes place in a tiny basement lab. That said, the movie is very short, clocking in at a lean-and-mean 83 minutes. That's not to say every horror film has to reinvent the wheel, but The Lazarus Effect could show a little more effort. Ultimately, the film devolves into the usual slasher-horror routine - fake-outs, flickering lights, gruesome violence, etc. Producer Jason Blum on Future Horror ProjectsThere's also plenty of silly technobabble and pseudoscience here, including the ever popular "humans only use 10 percent of their brains." To its credit, the movie kinda, sorta tries to upend that myth. Overall though it's pretty standard, sophomoric stuff. As Zoe posits early on, "If you're going to ask the big questions, you have to be prepared for the answers." Alas, those questions aren't fully explored, although they do get a bit more play towards the end. Frank is an atheist, Zoe a believer, and each of them have their own theories for what happens to you after you die. At its core, The Lazarus Effect is straight, junky horror, but the movie does at least hint at its inherent morality issues. Left with no other options, the researchers decide to duplicate the experiment, only this time - after a devastating mishap - they use a human subject. But after a successful trial on a dead dog, the team's research is confiscated by a generic "evil corporation" led by a smarmy Sam Wise (who is promptly never seen again). The film follows a group of researchers on the brink of creating a serum that will bring the dead back to life and give people "the second chance they deserve," according to the project's leaders Frank (Duplass) and his fiancée Zoe (Wilde).
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