Super hard to believe nobody’s remade Flatliners until now, right?!
You’re watching Beyond The Trailer’s review of The Lazarus Effect...
Okay, so it’s not actually CALLED Flatliners, maybe because they didn’t want to pay for
the rights? But it’s Flatliners. Back in that 1990 classic, a team of medical students
decided to induce near death in order to explore the great beyond! And because it was a movie
it obviously had horrifying consequences for them - and entertaining ones for the audience.
VERY entertaining. Flatliners was a huge hit, and helped pave the path to success for its
young cast featuring future stars Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt and Julia Roberts.
Heck it even helped make Joel Schumacher a respected director in Tinseltown, one of the
many hits on his resume that would later help him land a certain superhero gig... Now, twenty-five
years later, another group of medical researchers are about to play with death - although, because
Hollywood always has to up the ante, we’re not talking about NEAR death experiences here.
Now Lazarus is, of course, the man Jesus brought back to life as recounted in the Bible. But
the term has been co-opted recently by the Batman villain Ra’s Al Ghul, who is immortal
thanks to frequent dips in hidden Lazarus Pits. It’s also worth noting that when Ra’s
Al Ghul, or any person for that matter, first emerges from the pit they are gripped in madness.
Clearly, screenwriters Luke Dawson and Jeremy Slater are familiar with that element, as
it seems to be reflected in their script here. And it must be a pretty good script, as Slater
is one of the writers on the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot! Or...the Fantastic Four reboot
has three writers - three CREDITED writers - for a reason. The Lazarus Effect is the
latest installment from Jason Blum’s horror factory, movies made on the uber-cheap in
exchange for creative freedom for those involved. And the cast is pretty impressive, especially
for a low-budget horror film - Olivia Wilde, mumblecore king Mark Duplass, X-Men and American
Horror Story’s Evan Peters, as well as Black Spider-Man activist Donald Glover. So, does
Blum continue to have the midas touch? Can Flatliners be brought back to life? Or is The Lazarus Effect DOA?