Director: David Gelb
Writers: Luke Dawson and Jeremy Slater
Cast: Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, Evan Peters
Studio: Relativity
“The Lazarus Effect” plays like Pet Sematary for kids that can’t watch R rated movies. The dead come back to life thanks to Pete from The League messing with science junk. The film is terribly short, as you’ve seen most of the first and second acts in the trailer. The science gang has trouble resurrecting dead life. Eventually, they find a way to bring back small animals. Olivia Wilde gets electrocuted after bringing back a dog, then Pete decides to resurrect his girlfriend. The woman develops mental powers and crazy stuff, while the guys from “Community” and “American Horror Story” run around trying to stop science from going amok. The film clocks in at under 90 minutes, but you’ll swear that you’re spending three days with this film. What makes this entire odyssey so weird is that it’s the follow-up feature for the director of “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”. How do you go from a foodie documentary to this? Why did Relativity move this movie from Super Bowl Weekend? Could you make a modern film that looks like the cast spent less time working on it? Your stupid kids will love it.