The Lazarus Effect

Plot synopsis:
We see video footage of a dead pig lying on an operating table. A team of medical researchers are performing an experiment to bring it back to life. They inject it with a serum and hit the switch to their machine, but nothing happens. One researcher jokes about eating the pig, and then the pig starts to squeal briefly before staying dead.The team works at a university in Berkeley, California. One of the scientists, Zoe McConnell (Olivia Wilde), guides a student, Eva (Sarah Bolger), to the lab so that she can record the team's experiments and research. Zoe introduces Eva to her co-workers Niko (Donald Glover), Clay (Evan Peters), and Zoe's fiance and the head of the project, Frank Walton (Mark Duplass). While Clay ogles Eva, it's clear that Niko has feelings for Zoe. Frank explains that their serum, codenamed "Lazarus", began as a means to retain neural activity in coma patients, and is now used for the means of bringing the dead back to life. They test the serum on a blind dead dog named Rocky. At first, it appears that nothing happened, but Rocky begins to bark and move around. The team celebrates with a bottle of champagne.Frank and Zoe take Rocky home with them. The dog's cataracts disappear and it experiences a loss of appetite. It also displays slightly aggressive behavior. The team discovers that the serum is still in Rocky's brain, despite the fact that it should have dissipated within hours.At night, Zoe has a nightmare of being in a burning apartment building. There are burnt hands sticking out from underneath a door. Zoe awakens with a gasp. Frank comes in to comfort her.Clay is left alone in the lab with Rocky while he sits in his cage. He turns away from the dog for a brief moment, and he hears a crash. Clay goes to find the fridge opened and food spread out everywhere. He then sees Rocky growling viciously at him. When the team comes back, Clay mentions what he saw, but nobody seems to believe him.The dean of the university calls Frank in to chastise him for the underground experiments, unhappy that he and the team are trying to play God. Frank learns that someone has been giving the dean footage of the experiments that show them testing the serum on animals. The shareholders later show up at the lab and confiscate every bit of equipment and research that the team has after they are told that a major pharmaceutical corporation bought out the company that was funding the project. Zoe accuses Eva of being the one that told the dean, since this happened after she showed up.Using a security pass that Eva kept, the team sneaks back into the lab at night to recreate the experiment. Niko hacks into the security system to buy them time. The team gets another dead dog and gets it prepped for another test. Zoe flips the switch, and she is electrocuted. Frank rushes to her side and feels that she has no pulse. Niko hands him an adrenaline needle that he sticks in Zoe's chest, but she remains unresponsive. Clay brings over the defibrillators, which also doesn't work. Zoe is dead. Frank then sees that she had her engagement ring on her finger, which caused the electrocution.Not ready to let her go, Frank puts Zoe's body on the table. Clay, Niko, and Eva all argue that this is wrong since they know Frank is gonna try the serum out on a human being. Accepting whatever consequences are in store for him, Frank goes ahead with the test. He injects Zoe with the serum. She is still unresponsive. Niko then sees that the security guard is headed their way. They hide from him until he leaves, at which point the team sees Zoe sitting up on the table. Frank goes over to her and checks for anything unusual. Zoe grabs his wrist and asks if she just died. She then appears to be able to hear everyone's thoughts.At home, Zoe notices her fingertips look darkened, as well as the spot where Frank injected her. She tells him that she feels there is something wrong with her. She says that she felt herself in the burning apartment building, but she couldn't get herself out. Frank dismisses it as just a bad dream, like the ones she always has. After he leaves, Zoe moves a pen with her mind.The team returns to the lab with Zoe. She is left alone with Eva while the guys step out. Eva leaves Zoe to sleep. She walks out and finds herself in the same burning building. Eva sees a little girl standing in the hallway holding something in her hand. The little girl runs away, and Eva sees the burning hands reaching out. A burning hand then grabs her wrist, and she wakes up screaming as the guys find her. She tells them what she saw, and that she also has a visible burn on her wrist. Frank explains that Zoe had a traumatic childhood experience in which she was trapped in the burning building and that she saw her neighbors sticking their fingers out, unable to escape. Eva suggests that Zoe saw something when she died, and that maybe her soul is trapped.Niko is alone in the room on his computer when he's startled by Zoe. She begs him to help her figure out what's wrong with her, attempting to manipulate him with a kiss. He rejects it, knowing it's wrong. The lights go out, and Zoe disappears. Through a security camera, it's seen that Niko is pulled into a closet. Zoe reemerges and telekinetically crushes the closet with Niko inside, killing him.Frank, Eva, and Clay return, demanding to know where Niko is. Zoe appears calm and doesn't tell them anything. Clay tries to call for help, but the power goes out, taking out the emergency lines as well. He yells at Zoe for her to tell them where Niko is, and she uses her powers to choke Clay with his e-cigarette. Frank and Eva try to save him, but it's too late. They are horrified when they pull the e-cig out of his mouth. Zoe disappears again.Now realizing that something is very wrong, Frank and Eva attempt to catch Zoe with a syringe to incapacitate her. Frank finds Zoe in the hall, sobbing. He goes to her and says the Zoe he loves is still in there. She reads his mind and hears that he doesn't think she's the same Zoe. She grabs his head and squeezes it until his neck snaps. Eva flees after seeing this. Zoe then grabs the rest of the serum and injects herself with all of it.The lights continue to go out, leaving Eva in the dark with Zoe. Eva appears to get thrown into the burning building again. She encounters the little girl, whom Eva realizes is Zoe. Little Zoe hands Eva a book of matches, revealing that it was she that started the fire. Eva tells her that it wasn't her fault and that she can fix this. Evil Zoe then comes in with her skin burning and her eyes blackened. Little Zoe goes to open the neighbors' door as Evil Zoe comes closer. Little Zoe opens the door, and a blinding white light flashes before their eyes...Eva sticks Zoe with the syringe. Zoe apologizes for what she's done, and she collapses. Eva slumps over as sirens are heard. A fireman runs in with a response team. He goes to Eva and comforts her. Eva then sees that Zoe's body is gone. She looks at the fireman, which is really Zoe. She then breaks Eva's neck.Zoe lines up the bodies of Clay, Niko, and Eva next to each other. She puts Frank's body on the table and injects him with the serum from her body. Frank then comes back to life with a gasp.

Tags: paranormal, murder, flashback

Review:
A team is working on some amazing stuff, and the environments (labs and such) are just nice and cozy.I don't think The Lazarus Effect was meant to be a big, thought provoking masterpiece, it was meant as a short and entertaining horror flick.
To clarify...aren't all possession movies inherently pro-Christian since the inclusion of demons and hell implies that there is are angels and heaven (since Lucifer was cast out of heaven and became the devil)?As someone that has seen lot of REALLY bad horror films, I can safely say that The Lazarus Effect isn't all that bad.
It's got a pretty decent cast in Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde, but it's a cheap horror film.
This is another horror movie and we've seen those couple of jump scares before; but it does have some very creepy imagery and when this start happening it's not that bad.
Ultimately The Lazarus Effect feels like a horror version of Lucy but messier this time with some horror things happening in order to to keep the audience entertained for what it is.
Overall The Lazarus Effect is more or less what you expect it to be, an horror movie with some jump scares as usual but with some pretty cool and relevant imagery.
Instead I view them as comedy movies, trying to entertain myself by how bad the films are, so it's pretty safe to say my expectations when seeing a horror movie are about as low as it gets and yet "The Lazarus Effect" still left me astonished by just how bad, uninteresting and not even remotely scary it was.
There was nothing new or unique about the movie, and literally the only aspect of the movie that could be considered scary (if you're not already desensitized to those, like most people) were the jump scares, and even those were predictable.I've been disappointed by a lot of movies, but this is thee first time it was bad enough that I actually took the time to write out a review..
They decide to use the formula to bring her back to life but things don't go as planned.THE LAZARUS EFFECT has a few interesting ideas and some great performances, which keep it from being a complete trainwreck but there's no question that the film doesn't take its subject serious enough to have the film work.
There's no question that there are elements of FLATLINERS here but people will also be thinking of LUCY, which was released the previous year as this film.It should be noted that without the end credits this movie runs just 76 minutes, which is extremely short in today's time.
I say that because there are some interesting ideas about Heaven and Hell here but sadly very few of them are fully explored because once the fiancé is brought back to life the film turns into a rather generic horror movie.
People who've seen the movie will understand the my tagline suggestion, I was interested in seeing this the first time I saw the trailer on YouTube where "big surprise" 95% of the comments were from wackos claiming the film was "Blasphemous"....
well I'm here to tell you it is safe to watch and there is no blaspheming occurring in this film; what's more if you like movies about evil being unleashed as I do you will likely enjoy this film.The movie is short (83 minutes) which is fine by me because I don't like movies that are slow to get started or full of pointless gimmicks, there isn't a lot of character development except for the main character (Olivia Wilde) and other than Donald Glover I really don't care too much about what happens to rest of the cast but it was suspenseful although it does rely on some typical horror movie clichés.I gave it 9 stars because there were moments when I was genuinely scared in the sense that I would hate to be in that persons situation at this point...
This movie's overall atmosphere felt like Hollow Man and it definitely was much scarier than Flatliners, which was more story-driven than the Lazarus Effect.
There are many things to like about 'The Lazarus Effect' a sort of indie horror, which has borrowed parts of other movies especially 'Flatliners' but with more horror and less maturity.
The survivors will try to battle her.At some point the camera girl is taken to the event of the burning apartment and there's a neat revelation.The Lazarus Effect is a short horror movie with a good premise and the lovely Olivia Wilde.
The Lazarus Effect is a horror film that deals with a serum that can bring animals and people to life, but something is a little off when they do return and weird stuff starts to happen, well, weird stuff starts to happen around 45 minutes into this 1 hour and 20 minute movie.
Now i will say the highlight of the film is the cast, with Olivia Wilde, Danny Glover, Even Peters, Sarah Bolger and Mark Duplass they all put in some good (not great) performances that make the film still bearable to watch.
Well, i have found some negative reviews about this movie but i didn't notice and watched the movie last night, and believe me it was not a bad experience it was worth watching, in fact it was a good horror movie, it has a new concept which in recent past movies i have not seen any movie on this subject, this is the reason i liked this movie.
(although seriously it's that distracting, which is a shame because Olivia Wilde is actually half way decent- if someone gave her actual material to work with she'd probably ace it as she usually does) Often with this producer team I find that they have really clever horror film concepts, they just fall apart on the follow through.
Complete waste of talent makes poor use of common horror/sci-fi elements (jump scares, atmospheric lighting, smart people doing stupid things) and provides no foundation for its outlandish conclusion; at least it was short..
This movie was a very good horror movie , simple as that , It has jump scares , The story has it's own depth , The ending could have been better but still it had a last surprise Again , There is something seriously wrong with the people who rated this less than 6 .
A good cast (particulary Olivia Wilde) and good visuals that can't quite save the script that feels quite forced and unfullfilling.It doesn't really help that they decided to make it PG-13 either, there were some really goodlooking horrorscenes that had the potential of being unsettling if they could flesh out a little gore into the mix.I'm not saying that gore is a must in a horror, but it would most likely have helped in this case.It has potential that never fully delivers and the clichés are many.I can't say I liked it but I didn't hate it either, perhaps one day there will be a r-rated directors cut that will be a little more fleshed out cause this felt a little empty..
This direction of the film was developing pretty nicely but instead of continuing along that path it suddenly jumps way off into another direction when Zoe (Olivia Wilde) gets electrocuted.I found the film to be very frustrating, there was very little character or plot development, it's very shallow and quite boring.
Character building is fairly honest and I enjoyed seeing Evan Peters here as he has a good presence on screen.However for me personally I couldn't help but feel the movie got to that magic moment and decided to back away for a more modest and somewhat safe approach.
Yes it may have been like any basic possession horror movie, but I think the cast makes the film a whole lot better.
Zoe is accidentally electrocuted and Frank brings her back to life despite everybody's objections.These are good actors doing a mediocre little horror.
In "The Lazarus Effect," a team of university researchers (Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass, Donald Glover, Evan Peters and Sarah Bolger) comes up with a serum to bring dead creatures back to life.
Needless to say, things - as is generally the case in these sorts of playing-God scenarios - don't go exactly as planned.The makers of "The Lazarus Effect" (Luke Dawson and Jeremy Slater wrote it and David Gelb directed it) have taken a potentially promising premise and given it the standard horror movie treatment, overloaded with stock jump cuts, ear-splitting musical cues and typical science vs.
The Lazarus Effect is a film that follows the same criteria that a normal horror/thriller movie offers which can be redundant but it allows itself to be different.
Forbidden by the dean of their university from continuing on with their animal trails involving a Lazarus formula, Frank (Mark Duplass) and his fiancée, Zoe (Olivia Wilde), carry on in private.But when a lab accident leaves Zoe dead, Frank decides to use the drug on her, with their friends (Donald Glover, Evan Peters, Sarah Bolger) barring witnesses to her resurrection.Back from the dead, Zoe uses her newly developed powers of telekinesis and super-strength to murder her lab partners.Lacking any substantial scares beyond the standard startles in dimly lit rooms, The Lazarus Effect is a poorly conceived thriller with a predictable and pointless existence.Incidentally, once in the ground you do have 30-days to return your coffin.
They test the animal and find that the serum they had administered was still in its blood stream and had not broken down.When one of the scientists called Zoe(Olivia Wilde) is accidentally killed by electrocution, her fiancée Frank(Mark Duplass) decides to administer the experimental serum on her to bring her back to life...Watch the film to find out what happens next.Verdict: For a long while, I found the film extremely boring.
"The Lazarus Effect" (PG-13, 1:23) doesn't talk much about the Bible (although it does discuss life after death) and it never references the man named Lazarus, but it does deal with the idea of resurrection – quite literally and dramatically.Frank (Mark Duplass) and his fiancé Zoe (Olivia Wilde) lead a small team of university researchers, including young geniuses Niko (Donald Glover) and Clay (Evan Peters) and a newly hired videographer named Eva (Sarah Bolger) in conducting some potentially game-changing medical research.
The rest of the film is a combination of scary moments, clever reveals and unexpected developments."The Lazarus Effect" is a small movie – but in a good way.
She returns from death, but not exactly for the better."Flatliners-meets-Carrie" is a fairly fitting summation of what we have here in "The Lazarus Effect," but the thing is is there is a good movie in here somewhere.
The other thing it has going for it is the time of year – there is not much being released right now that can draw the weekend teenage groups, the audience this is clearly aimed at.Horror movies can be fun, and with a cast that includes Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover and Evan Peters, this one has the foundation to develop a following.
The biggest difference is that all three of those films knew exactly what they were trying to accomplish, whereas this first feature film from director David Gelb is a mish-mash of genres and styles.The basic premise is that lovers, and co-researchers at a Catholic university, Frank (Duplass) and Zoe (Wilde), along with their assistants Clay (Peters), Niko (Glover) and Eva (Sarah Bolger, one of the sisters from the great IN America from 2002), began by looking for a way to extend brain activity in comatose patients.
The Lazarus Effect, for the most part, was quite a decent horror film (I actually struggle to call this a horror as it was more of a thriller for me), but it did fall slightly short at delivering a more powerful punch.What started out as a good enough story, just fell away somewhat and it ended up being your typical run-of-the-mill possession film.
Pushing the boundaries of ethics, this breakthrough opens the channel for unspeakable and gruesome consequences.Starring Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass, Sarah Bolger, Evan Peters and Donald Glover, The Lazarus Effect is brimming with talented actors with a penchant for creating vivid and complete characters who, in lesser hands, would have been two dimensional clichés.
Yes, the plot is a bit thin and not nearly as complex as it could have been if it were in greater hands.Is the Lazarus Effect a life changingly good movie?
Despite the performances, The Lazarus Effect is a boring horror film, and I can't recommend it.
We focus on a gaggle of medical professionals, headed by Frank (Mark Duplass) and Zoe (Olivia Wilde), who have created a special serum that effectively brings dead patients back to life.
Code-named "Lazarus," the serum has had success on several different animals, particularly a dog, and the remainder of the gang - the tech-savvy Niko (Donald Glover), the smart-ass Clay (Evan Peters), and Eva (Sarah Bolger), the documentarian filming the entire process - exercises potential ways to bring the serum to a more mainstream level.However, when Zoe dies from electrocution while working in the lab, following the government seizing the rights and the work permits of the group of scientists, Frank is determined to use the serum and bring her back to life.
At the film's core, we have the superb actor, writer, and director Mark Duplass, who puts on a good show by himself, even if he working in a middling production, every time, and Olivia Wilde, who has enough charisma and character wit to carry herself through quite well in addition.
The character interactions in the film and the way the scientists would operate to try and perfect their serum was more intriguing and fun to witness than anything Gelb, Dawson, and Slater were trying to cook up.On that note, "The Lazarus Effect" almost works as a lukewarm medical drama, with horror elements sprinkled in to prevent a sense of monotony.
The Conjuring sure was creepy and shame on me for even mentioning it but so was the first Paranormal Activity, but other than that really, our horror offerings have been slight to say the least over the last 5 or so years.The other huge and frustrating aspect bringing down many a film of the genre is the fact that there are an increasingly large number of films with potential that find it squandered in the midst of so-so acting, characters we can't be bothered caring for, uninspiring direction and cliché ridden story arcs – it's a problem then that the Lazarus Effect is a harbinger for both these genre drowning aspects.With a ripe story idea and with an admittedly strong opening, Lazarus quickly descends into a CGI ridden and murkily developed story that asks us to care but provides us with little reason to and whenever the scariest scene in a horror film is the sight of Childish Gambino wearing a pig mask, you get the feeling that the Lazarus Effect has failed in its modus operandi.You've got to wonder what's the main reasoning behind Lazarus's inability to go on with its strong idea, and while the premise of scientific boffins discovering a way to raise people up from their mortal coils isn't exactly a new idea, Lazarus seemed to have a fresh take on the concept within its grasp but as soon as the always pretty to look at Olivia Wilde returns to our adventure as a dark eyed resurrected baddie, Lazarus shuns aside all good will in a plethora of dumb scenes, lame character demises and bad scripting, so bad does Lazarus become in its later stages that all be wishing that the film focused on the brought back from the dead Rocky the dog instead.Saving face with a concept that's initially intriguing and actually entertaining, The Lazarus Effect is yet another addition to the ever growing library of recent horror films that lose sight of goals within their reach to become merely above horrible entries into a genre that is finding itself with less and less wins as the years go on.2 murderous storage cabinets out of 5.
You're talking about bringing a person back from the dead." Zoe (Wilde) and Frank (Duplass) are scientists working on a secret experiment that has a surprising effect.
'THE LAZARUS EFFECT': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five) Low budget horror flick about a group of medical students who experiment in bringing the dead back to life.
The thing is if you have watched a thousand horror movies since you  were a kid, like I did, then it would take a lot for a new horror movie  to scare the crap out of us, because we already know their tricks and  what to expect, and that is the case with THE LAZARUS EFFECT, be that  as it may, I think this is an interestingly-made film by a director who  never made a full length horror, but probably has seen enough horror  films like you and I did.
Frank decides to use the Lazarus to resurrect her against the will of his friends but soon the team learns that something is wrong with Zoe, who is Catholic and tells that she is trapped in hell."The Lazarus Effect" is a horror movie with a good story that uses some concepts from "Flatliners".
In the end, "The Lazarus Effect" could have been a little longer with better development to be a great horror film.
Were we to learn a little bit more precisely what effect the (previously-only-animal-tested) scientific procedure carried out on lead-role Zoe (Olivia Wilde) REALLY had, it would not do any harm to the enjoyment of this creepy film, and might in fact make it still better.
The goal of the Lazarus Project, like all ideas in the horror genre, was noble at first; to allow doctors to have more time to save people from death by bringing them back from the dead.
With a title like The Lazarus Effect, audience would know what to expect and the movie doesn't disappoint in this regard.