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Lazarus Effect

Since the untimely passing of my blog editor, I've been having difficulty getting back into reviewing movies. I was actually starting to believe that some part of me had just died off, as well. Today, while working from home, I dove head first into Lazarus Effect. 35 or so minutes from the end of it - I realized that I do, indeed, still have the desire to dissect movies. Alleluia.

Hold that praise a moment: I've got to admit, this movie is way too easy a target to really count as "inspiring me to return to my blogging greatness." Regardless, I'll count this as progress.

Here's the gist: if Pet Cemetery had an illegitimate baby with Flatliners and that baby got hot and heavy with Hollow Man - the resulting creation might look something like Lazarus Effect. But, I suppose that really just scratches the surface of it.

At the heart of this movie is a morality tale known well by horror fans: play god and you'll be punished. The creation of life must come from the natural, heterosexual procreation process. Equally as important? Dead things must stay dead. The movie is also a quite standard warning: do not trust science over religion. I can't help but think, had any of the scientists in Lazarus Effect taken a little study break to read up on their classics (Frankenstein, Jeklly and Hyde, etc.) they may have saved themselves a bit of trouble. Perhaps they should have spent less time with John Hammond and more time with Ian Malcolm. (And in case you missed that reference - well - you should be ashamed of yourself and I'm not explaining it.)

Aside from the completely unoriginal story, the technical side of things wasn't awful: they had enough budget to get their effects in order and the (minimal) gore was pretty good. I tend to think they were reaching for more psychological terror than graphic display, so in that context, I suppose the movie was a success.

On a scale from "I totally wasted that 2 hours of my life and I want to kill whoever made that movie" to "OH MY GOD! I HAVE TO SEE IT AGAIN!" - I'd rate this one as, "I didn't entirely hate the experience and (oh yes) I've seen way worse."

My guess is that most people will watch this one because:
- They are horror nerds and just watch an old horror crap that comes their way (GUILTY!)
- Everyone loves Olivia Wilde and desperately hopes she'll take her clothes off in any movie she appears in.

And there you have it, folks. My return to blogging.
My half-heatered apologies for typos and bad grammar.


You can watch the trailer here:
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