The Lazarus Effect barely worth $5 DVD bin

When Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, everyone called it a miracle. Leave it to the cool, hip, nerdy medical researchers (Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde) to start playing god and all hell breaks loose, including the fact that they should not be playing god according to the chair board.  Science and religion are the two common motifs used in horror films, so why should The Lazarus Effect not use them to their advantage. This supernatural horror film directed by David Gelb (Jiro Dreams of Sushi) and produced from the team behind The Purge and Paranormal Activities.  It has an all star talented cast which includes who include Mark Duplass (The Mindy Project), Olivia Wilde (Drinking Buddies), Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino (Community), Evan Peters (American Horror Story, X-Men: Days of Futures Past) and Sarah Bolger (The Tudors).

Frank (Duplass) and Zoey (Wilde) play the hip rockstar medical researchers under a grant from the university that use their time to invent a serum code named Lazarus. The serum allows the trial patent to be revived from the dead for a couple of weeks in order to run medical tests on the subjects. Niko (Glover) and Clay (Peters) play the two interns that provide both comedic relief to the group. Where Peter's shines and thrives as the wacky crazy Clay, Glover's Niko is more subdue from his role on Community. The test subjects at first are animals, with their first success being a German Shepard. You know the old saying when the dead are dead, you should just leave them alone. In theory this is true, but it is not the case in horror films. Frank and Zoey adopt the German Shepard who acts out of character, which allows Clay makes a Cujo reference, another horror film based on a rabid St. Bernard. Let's just say some freak lab accident rushes the need to go from animal tests subjects to human tests subjects. All hell breaks lose and no one is safe. For further spoilers not limited to character death scenes please view the trailer that contains almost the entire plot of the movie.

David Gleb plays this horror movie safe using the same troupes as in any science and religion horror films.  The Purge and Paranormal Activities brought something new to the genre of horror films known as found footage. The Purge blends both found and live action footage, which is a element to showcase the hell breaking loose in The Lazarus Effect. For the audience member who wants logic to go along side of the science, you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a horror films that plays it safe with an all star cast of actors and actress that were looking for work, than The Lazarus Effect might be worth a rental or the 5 $ DVD bin.

3 Rockstar Medical researchers/ 5 Jesus miracles