1. The Lazarus Effect
Blumhouses 1st horror movie of 2015, The Lazarus Effect was released months before Insidious 3, The Gallows, The Gift and Sinister 2, opened to decent box office and pleasant reviews (USA Today called it smarter and tenser than last years crop of tame horror films) and has a cast that includes Ray Wise, Evan Peters and Olivia Wilde. That whets the appetite for what at the very least should be an entertaining romp, but the movie quickly goes off the rails and never recovers, giving us a nonsense plot and unengaging characters. David Gelbs film thinks its a modern Frankenstein, but its really a PG-13 version of Flatliners made for the Twilight demographic. Once again, a team of researchers (young and good-looking, you know the drill) discover a way of bringing the dead back to life, but have hitherto only been successful with animal subjects. If you just thought, I bet the lead researchers girlfriend dies in an accident, and when they revive her, she returns as some kind of monster, youre way ahead of the filmmakers.
Ian Watson
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
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