Delayed Reaction: The Lazarus Effect

The Pitch: Flatliners for a new generation.

How I Came Into It: The biggest consideration for the movies I've been picking lately, specicifically from Netflix online is the cast. I know most of the mainstream directors who I like and have already seen most of their movies, so I'm looking for writers and directors who I don't know well yet. Without bodies of work to go off, the next best strategy is to assume that a good cast means a good movie. If so, that must apply to The Lazarus Effect. Mark Duplass is one of the hardest working actor/director/producers in Hollywood. He's impressively prolific in front of the camera in particular. I've liked Olivia Wilde since her days on The O.C. I generally like seeing Sarah Bolger and Evan Peters showing up in anything. Donald Glover is one of my favorite comedic performers at any level, which he normally brings to even his non-comedy projects.

I think I need to coin a term for cases like this. I'll call it my casting threshold. That's when I ask myself if I like a cast enough that even the worst version of a movie would be watchable. This meets that criteria.

Why I Saw It: There's a lot of potential in this idea. Being able to bring someone back from the dead is interesting, and I'm surprised more horror movies don't use that idea. Early on, the movie does a good job building the tension. The regenerated dog's behavior gives indications without revealing everything. When they are allowed to, the cast plays off each other well enough. The more Glover and Peters the better.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Ok, the pitch is more like "Flatliners meets Lucy". This is one of those gibberish science movies that you just have to turn off most of your brain for. The scares are mostly lazy jump-scares and I'm not sure that anything about Wilde's powers make sense. I've also grown tired of "let it* play out" as a fix in horror movies. There's been some good uses, but largely it's a way to force a narrative when the writer(s) hasn't thought through the story all the way. I saw that director David Gelb's history was mostly in documentaries before this. I hoped that would mean he'd take a more distant approach to staging this. Instead, it's shot in a very obvious way. There's no chance for any growing dread or lingering unsettledness.

*"It" being a dream, premonition, and vision.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend