Lazarus Effect not worth resurrecting
The Lazarus Effect could at best be called a high-tech update of Pet Sematary, where science-y gobbledygook steps in for the weird mysticism of a native cemetery.
For a movie that has pulled in a reasonably overqualified cast with solid dramatic chops, it is also regretfully short on any characters that stick out in any way. From the director on down, this has the feel of a movie where everyone’s most pressing concern was filing the direct deposit form with HR on time.
It’s not so much an incapable movie, though, as a profoundly unsubstantial one. The story is all contrivance and convenience: a group of scientists, led by Zoe (Olivia Wilde) and Frank ( Mark Duplass) are working on a “Lazarus serum,” meant apparently to stave off the effects of being dead on the brain — you know, for doctors and such — but with the practical application of bringing stuff back from the dead. It begins with a dog, and although the pooch comes back on the growly side, it’s enough to get the team celebrating — until, of course, their experiment gets shut down due to shady corporate dealings that exist for no other reason than to set up the back half of the film.
That features a little bit of existential hand-wringing — Frank’s a parody of hardcore reason, whereas Zoe wears a cross — and the team’s efforts to replicate the experiment so they can prove to the world the research is theirs. The creaky gears turn even louder when Zoe is electrocuted before they can inject another dog, and the heartbroken Frank plugs her into the machine instead.
The objections of his fellow scientists — cannon fodder Evan Peters, Donald Glover and Sarah Bolger don’t even begin to redeem the absurdity of that choice. And when Zoe comes back, growly doesn’t even begin to describe it.
From there, things play out roughly as you’d imagine, the creepiness steadily increasing as more and more weird stuff surrounds Zoe and more and more lights in the lab go out. It’s a tick-the-boxes-with-blood affair that director David Gelb moodily but never very expressively puts together. If the film had either sincerely dived into what a potential afterlife really means, or even just capably portrayed Frank and Zoe as something more than lab buddies, there might at least be some emotion in the finale, instead of just a series of poorly connected dots. Sometimes, never being made in the first place is better.