The Lazarus Effect – Cast/Crew Interviews: Mark Duplass, Jason Blum, More!
It’s a sunny, swanky day in Beverly Hills, CA, at the Four Seasons Hotel, where the press junket for the latest Blumhouse horror movie, The Lazarus Effect, is being held. It’s a long way from rural Helena, AL, where a dog named Lazarus lives. And when I say he “lives,” I mean that in every sense of the word… and more.
In the big budget Hollywood movie, Mark Duplass plays medical researcher Frank, who, along with his fiancée, Zoe (Olivia Wilde), has found a way to revive the dead. After a successful, but unauthorized, experiment on a lifeless dog, they are ready to make their work public. However, when they try it on another kaput mutt, Zoe is killed by a random current of electricity, leading Frank to test the process on her. Zoe is alive – but something evil is within her.
In the small Alabama town, the real Lazarus is a black Labrador mix who, after not being adopted from the animal shelter in which he found himself, was euthanized – twice – and came back to life both times. “When the staff arrived in the morning, to their shock the dog was looking at them. He had even eaten his leftover food from the day before. Though scared and wobbly, he was sitting in his cage alive!” Sonya King, of Two By Two Rescue, wrote on the rescue’s Facebook page. She wound up adopting the undead dog herself, saying, “He sits beside me in the mornings as I have quiet time with God. Lazarus’ health is perfectly restored and there are no lasting effects even though Lazarus was raised from the dead. True story!”
While The Lazarus Effect is not a true story, the filmmakers did try to imbue it with as much realism and gravitas as possible. When I talked to Duplass, whom I first met as the director of Baghead (the world’s first and only mumblecore horror film), I asked him how, as the director of such a minimalist but effective movie, he brings some of that to the set as an actor in a big-budget, sensational, scary movie that’s enhanced with a lot of CGI. Duplass replied, “It was a blank slate, and so my approach to this was to infuse it with as much as naturalism as possible. If some dialogue in the script didn’t feel [grounded], I’d work with David [Gelb, the director] to make it work. To find new ways to say the things that would otherwise be cliché.”
I also spoke with Jason Blum, the producer of the film. I asked him how he found Gelb since the director had only done a feature documentary and some shorter projects prior to this – and he’d never done horror. “I didn’t find him,” Blum said. “He found me. This came to me with him already attached. I was skeptical, but David had a trailer company and cut trailers for a living so I knew he could hit the beats needed for horror. Olivia and Mark committed to the movie with David attached. So I was in.”
“We don’t work with many first-time directors,” Blum went on. But he felt Gelb could handle all the big elements of a film meant for wide release. “I think the system is kind of skewed because it should be first-time directors who get to have better budgets, and the more experienced ones should have lower budgets. But that’s not how it works [except in this case]. For a first-time director, we’ll do it with a super low budget under half a million. Or, as in the case with David, when he’s got a lot of supporters who can convince me.”
Duplass was one of the convincers. He had faith because Gelb was a “commercial director and trailer cutter. That’s what sold me. The alchemy of him and this eclectic cast. It wasn’t the script so much, which I liked. It’s a solid kick-ass horror movie. But I wouldn’t have done it with just anybody. We can be a horror movie that goes out big and wide, but we could also be something a little more unique.” Also, “Jason is my bud. As much as we make different films, we are very philosophically aligned with how we make movies.”
Duplass certainly has done a variety of roles and projects. Since The One I Love, a very small indie he did with Elizabeth Moss, was one of my very favorite films of 2014, I asked Duplass how he finds that balance between those little niche movies and these bigger budget (hopefully) blockbusters. “I’ve been making movies for 12 years. I am a nice, supportive person in this industry. And there’s about 10 of us. We don’t get ahead quickly, because we are nice, but the tortoise does well. My tortoise time is coming up [he reels off several of his TV and film projects], and that’s really – all false modesty aside, that’s what it is. My friends are people like Jason Blum, David Gelb, Elizabeth Moss… so I have a little ecosystem. And I have tenure.”
I ask him if he’s ever contemplated the downsides and upsides of not being just a filmmaker and an actor, but a big star. A celebrity. “I’ve had some opportunities in the past year that might have led to that,” he says. He had to turn them down due to schedule conflicts. He’s thought about this, since he does seem to on the precipice of bigger things. “It would be difficult if a very big Marvel movie came my way. I have kids, and I like to walk around unnoticed. But also I’m not an idiot and I realize that right now is a time when Paul Rudds and Chris Pratts and people like me can be movie stars. To be the lead in The Lazarus Effect and not be ripped and have amazing hair is unique. So I do have opportunity, but I don’t know how I feel about it yet.”
When it comes to the horror aspects of The Lazarus Effect, Duplass says he can see similarities to old school chillers like Flatliners. “I saw it in the theater when I was 10. Never forgot it. I remember watching Alien as a horror film fan, too. It’s so psychological and simple, and it all takes place in one location. Like the movies I make – The One I Love. It’s in one location, but it’s the human interaction that makes the scares scary. The Lazarus Effect has a simplicity to it. It hits the reset button.”
Blum is also a fan of horror, but not lifelong. While he does say Alfred Hitchcock is his go-to guy whenever he wants to watch a suspenseful film, “but I’m not like Eli Roth, Scott Derrickson or James Wan. I wasn’t a crazy horror fan to begin with. I am now.” Yes, he’s seen Flatliners. But, “There’s a whole generation of fans who haven’t seen Flatliners. We think people who liked Ouija, maybe slightly older, will like The Lazarus Effect too.”
I mentioned the story of Lazarus the dog to Blum, and he agreed its roots in real life makes the movie effective. “The basis of reality is scary. People will say, ‘I don’t believe in the Ouija board… but I don’t play with them,’ or ‘I don’t believe in the afterlife, but I don’t want to tempt fate.’ That’s what draws the audience in.”
The Lazarus Effect, in theaters February 27th, was directed by David Gelb and written by Luke Dawson and Jeremy Slater. It stars Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Evan Peters, Sarah Bolger, and Donald Glover.
For more info follow The Lazarus Effect on Facebook and Blumhouse on Twitter using the hashtag #EvilWillRise.
Synopsis:
From masters of horror Blumhouse Productions – producer of The Purge, Insidious, and Sinister franchises – THE LAZARUS EFFECT follows a group of researchers led by Frank (Duplass) and his fiancée, Zoe (Wilde,) who’ve achieved the unimaginable: bringing the dead back to life. After a successful, yet unsanctioned trial on a newly deceased animal, the team is ready to unveil its breakthrough to the world. When the dean of their university learns of their underground experiments, their project is unexpectedly shut down and their materials confiscated.
Frank, Zoe, and their team (Glover, Bolger, and Peters) take matters into their own hands, launching a rogue attempt to recreate their experiment, during which things go terribly wrong and one of their own, Zoe, is horrifically killed. Fueled by terror and grief, Frank pushes them to do the unthinkable: attempt to resurrect their first human test subject.
Initially, the procedure appears a success, but the team soon realizes something is wrong with Zoe. As her strange new persona reveals itself, the team quickly becomes stuck in a gruesome reality. They are no longer faced with the question of whether they can bring someone back to life – but rather, the wrath of her return.
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