The Lazarus Effect is another Blumhouse Productions(Paranormal Activity) horror film that is below average. I'm a huge horror fan, but most of the newer horror films are generic garbage. This film continues that trend. The following is my review of The Lazarus Effect.
The film was written by Luke Dawson and Jeremy Slater. Dawson is known for the 2008 horror film Shutter, while Slater is working on the 2015 superhero reboot of the Fantastic Four. The plot of the film is a rather nice idea, but the execution is terrible. The film never really knows what type of horror film it wants to be. We see the film jump in and out of horror sub-genres, and frankly that completely kills the mood of the film. The characters themselves are rather wooden and you don't care about them at all. Not only do you not care about the characters, some of the characters are so poorly written, you wonder if Dawson and Slater just threw trash at the wall hoping something would stick. Overall the effort from Dawson and Slater is very poor, and I'm worried about future projects both of these writers have lined up.
The film was directed by David Gelb who gets his first major directing job with this film after having done work on documentaries and short films. The film is shot fairly well, however Gelb is dealt an awful script that no one could fix. Some of the kills featured in this film look great, and is one of the very few upsides to the film. However, the overuse of jump scares is front and center in this film, which hurts many films in this genre. The acting is another bad aspect. The film stars Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass, Evan Peters, and Donald Glover. Horror films are known for bad acting, and I expected as much in this film, but even Wilde phones in this film. A better director may have been able to get a better overall performance from the cast. Overall Gelb delivers a dud as the director of the film, but should get a break since the script was so bad.
The film was composed by Sarah Schachner who is known for scoring some smaller films and more recently scoring the video game Assassin's Creed: Unity. I have to be honest here, the score was the best thing about this film. Usually in cheaper horror films like this you will get a score that is phoned in, but here Schachner delivers something that adds some actual depth to a shallow film. I really found myself enjoying the score towards the end of the film when the story was wrapping up. With this being the best aspect of the film, that is not a good thing, but at least someone on this production did a great job.
In closing, this is a very lazy horror film that was made on a cheap budget hoping to make some quick cash. Something Blumhouse Productions has been doing for years now. The redeeming qualities of this film aren't enough to make you spend any money on this mess of a film.
3/10
The film was written by Luke Dawson and Jeremy Slater. Dawson is known for the 2008 horror film Shutter, while Slater is working on the 2015 superhero reboot of the Fantastic Four. The plot of the film is a rather nice idea, but the execution is terrible. The film never really knows what type of horror film it wants to be. We see the film jump in and out of horror sub-genres, and frankly that completely kills the mood of the film. The characters themselves are rather wooden and you don't care about them at all. Not only do you not care about the characters, some of the characters are so poorly written, you wonder if Dawson and Slater just threw trash at the wall hoping something would stick. Overall the effort from Dawson and Slater is very poor, and I'm worried about future projects both of these writers have lined up.
The film was directed by David Gelb who gets his first major directing job with this film after having done work on documentaries and short films. The film is shot fairly well, however Gelb is dealt an awful script that no one could fix. Some of the kills featured in this film look great, and is one of the very few upsides to the film. However, the overuse of jump scares is front and center in this film, which hurts many films in this genre. The acting is another bad aspect. The film stars Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass, Evan Peters, and Donald Glover. Horror films are known for bad acting, and I expected as much in this film, but even Wilde phones in this film. A better director may have been able to get a better overall performance from the cast. Overall Gelb delivers a dud as the director of the film, but should get a break since the script was so bad.
The film was composed by Sarah Schachner who is known for scoring some smaller films and more recently scoring the video game Assassin's Creed: Unity. I have to be honest here, the score was the best thing about this film. Usually in cheaper horror films like this you will get a score that is phoned in, but here Schachner delivers something that adds some actual depth to a shallow film. I really found myself enjoying the score towards the end of the film when the story was wrapping up. With this being the best aspect of the film, that is not a good thing, but at least someone on this production did a great job.
In closing, this is a very lazy horror film that was made on a cheap budget hoping to make some quick cash. Something Blumhouse Productions has been doing for years now. The redeeming qualities of this film aren't enough to make you spend any money on this mess of a film.
3/10