THE LAZARUS EFFECT

US, 2015, 83 minutes, Colour.
Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Sarah Bolger, Evan Peters, Donald Glover, Ray Wise, Amy Aquino.
Directed by David Gelb.


The Lazarus Effect is a brief film about scientific experimentation on reviving the dead, on the possibilities of reanimation.

There was an elaborate film on this theme, Flatliners, from 1990 with a group of students working together and experimenting. It was a cautionary tale.

This is also a cautionary tale, the story of an engaged couple who have a grant, work in the laboratory with a team, develop a serum which enables them to revive a dog. The academic authorities are wary of such experiments and the sponsors of the experiment send a representative to confiscate the serum and the equipment.

The challenge to the team is to conduct an experiment using their equipment but there is a deadline for the expiry of the serum and so they immediately move to action. Here the film changes tone with the fiancee being electrocuted and the decision being made to revive her. But who is the person revived, the same person, or the living dead and the unleashing of monstrous and destructive powers?

The couple is played by Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde, with the assistance being played by Donald Glover, Sarah Bolger and, providing some comic relief, Evan Peters.

1. Science? Science fiction? Laboratories and re-animation? The exercise of the brain? The death experience, near-death experience, seeing light?

2. The university setting, the laboratory, offices? Academia? Experiments? The musical score?

3. The team, Frank and Zoe, engaged, their love for each other, working together? The approval of the university authorities? The team, Clay and the comic touches, Niko and his earnestness? The arrival of Eva, her collaboration, interest, yet an outsider, her response to the crises, Frank and his suspicions about her? Her full support for the experiment?

4. Reanimation, serum, developing it, the experiments, with the dog? Insertion of the serum, the response, the dog and the results? Death, new personality, destruction?

5. The possibility of human reanimation? The strength of the serum? Scientific possibilities, ethical questions?

6. The response to the dog, Frank and his determination, Zoe and her support? The others?

7. The interview with the academic dean, encouraging experimentation, but academic cautiousness?

8. The arrival of Mr Wallace, sinister, the interviews, his decisions, the taking of the equipment, ownership by the University and the sponsor of the experiment?

9. The decision to use the serum, to go to the laboratory, to work with their own equipment? The timetabling deadline?

10. The experiments, Zoe and her part, her being electrocuted, the effect on her?

11. Frank, his determination, to revive Zoe? The reaction of the others? Hesitations? Suspicions of Eva? Collaboration?

12. Zoe, her body, laid out, the serum, the experiment? The reanimation?

13. The initial effect on Zoe, awakening, not remembering, adjusting?

14. The changes in Zoe, not having that near-death experience, reawakening, the living dead, unleashing her brain, the inner personality, or deforming it?

15. The destruction, the members of the group, the confrontation with Frank, Zoe berserk?

16. The moralising aspect of the story – with the touch of Dr Frankenstein and his hubris? And of other science fiction films about reanimation like Flatliners all films about the use of the human brain, like Lucy?