To Catch a Critic:

Photo courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.

Those looking to enjoy a non-complicated, jump-scare filled horror film extravaganza, look no further, because the Lazarus Effect is all that and more!

Directed by David Gelb and starring Olivia Wilde and Mark Duplass, the Lazarus Effect is a fairly typical poltergeist-style horror film with a bit of scientific twist. It begins with a team of scientists working tirelessly to develop a serum that will enable them to restore life to the deceased, allegedly to help the job of healthcare providers by giving them a sort of buffer area for emergency situations. As one would expect, this quickly proves to be a mistake when the euthanized dog they bring back from the dead exhibits odd, aggressive, and even telekinetic behaviors. Of course, in perfect horror movie fashion, no one seems overly perturbed by these developments, and they seek to recreate the experiment on another dog to outwit a large pharmaceutical company that they fear is trying to strip them of credit for their miracle drug. Unfortunately, a freak electrical accident leaves one of the lead scientists dead on the floor. Her distraught fiancé and lab partner uses the highly controversial and experimental treatment on her to bring her back to life, which is when the real fun begins.

Overall, the plot was interesting, but lackluster. It was the same old recycled possession/poltergeist story with some dubiously scientific explanations thrown in as a vain attempt to camouflage the cliché. The entire film was predictable to anyone who has watched a horror movie in the last ten years. The only thing saving the Lazarus Effect from succumbing to boring repetition were the perfectly executed jump-scares, a utility that used to be incredibly overdone but has since fallen to the wayside in favor of false alarms and audience-made anticipation. Viewers have recently become accustomed to harsh musical cues misleading them to think that something startling was about to happen, only to have it happen later at a totally unassuming instance. The Lazarus Effect takes advantage of this by giving jump-scares where one should expect them, but doesn’t. Soon, the audience learns to anticipate the scares by harshening of the musical scores, which often last for minutes at a time and really have the tension built by the time the event actually happens.

It’s unfortunate that the film did not live up to expectations, but that misfortune does not lie with the cast. Consisting of crowd favorites Olivia Wilde, Evan Peters, and other notable talents, the cast seemed to be overqualified for the simplistic roles they were assigned. Peters, for example, is most well-known for his involvement in the hit horror television show American Horror Story and is no stranger to eerie roles. Wilde, although not typical of the horror genre, has been a household name for years, scoring large roles in programs like popular medical drama House and the 2010 science fiction film Tron: Legacy. The Lazarus Effect’s lack of refinement is not the fault of it’s cast, but rather with the writing.

Although it won’t go down as one of the great horror films of the 21^st century, the Lazarus Effect was an admittedly fun watch, letting the viewer take a little under two hours to themselves to enjoy a corny film with subpar writing, laughing at the plot holes and predictable dialogue and get a cheap thrill from a black-eyed demon appearing suddenly on the screen. It wasn’t great, and it wasn’t terrible. It toed the line between a great movie and a laughingstock, leaving it in the land of the average with so many of its fellow modern horror films.