The Lazarus Effect

One thing I hate more than cheap, expected scare tactics in horror movies is wishy-washy, weak supernatural backstory. The Lazarus Effect was a good sci-fi horror movie, but not without its blandly predictable, timely jumpscares and typical suspense scenes. I really liked the plot of this movie and it's very rare that I would like an angmoh horror movie. PLUS, omg it's rated PG 13 only.

According to Wikipedia, the "Lazarus Phenomenon" is the medical nomenclature for a "spontaneous resuscitation" - due to unknown causes - after a cardiac failure. Basically in layman's words, you die for a moment, then you resuscitate.

The movie was about a team of scientists working on a promising project using what they have extracted "Lazarus serum". Injecting it into the brain they end up resurrecting a dog which subsequently developed aggressive inclinations due to its heightened brain functions. To protect the authenticity and profits of their brainchild from the corporate world, they decide to replicate their experiment, only to electrocute one of the scientists, Zoe by accident.

After a series of jarring decision making in complete abandonment of ethics and scientific code of conduct, Frank resurrected "Zoe", pulling her out of her purgatory that was self-constructed upon a traumatic childhood remorse, thereby unleashing this weird demonic version of Zoe into their lab.I thought that the backstory and explanation of the movie plot was amazingly cogent, given that it's a supernatural horror story. Perhaps the sciency part about this medical resurrection which the movie centered around injected a bit of logic that is ever absent in horror films. I guess this was the number one thing which made the film stood out and be sadly underrated.

My only gripe about this movie is how terribly predictable the scenes were. Basic horror film tactics like flickering lights, perpetually dark hallways, sweeping your flashlights here and there... Well they do add suspense but they aren't original. For horror, it's really just those basic jumpscares which you can clearly foresee especially with the typical suspenseful buildup as mentioned. Nothing new. But that doesn't discredit the scare of the movie. I thought it was quite scary? Not the scariest, but it still qualifies as a horror.

Here is Evan Peters dying prematurely. NOOOOOO

Considering I felt a little need to relieve my bladder throughout the movie but still stayed on because I couldn't find a boring opportunity to do so, The Lazarus Effect is definitely something I'd recommend for anyone who seeks well explained sci-fi horror.

Haunted - Chuck Palaniuk

Tsk, doing a review on Chuck Palaniuk's Haunted is very difficult because I've never had so much mixed feelings for a book. It's either a provocative masterpiece, or a disgustingly showy story. I decided to give Chuck Palaniuk a go because I keep seeing his books around. 

Provocative because of its storyline; a "Writers' Retreat" promising 23 participants 3 months of hermitic living where they will write their next best-selling books. Food and shelter as promised, but these 23 people find themselves confined in a grand theatre, hermetically sealed from the outside world.

Structure-wise, the main story (about the happenings between the 23 people) is interspersed with poems and a short stories of each of the participants. You get to know the story behind nicknames the 23 people identify themselves as. 

The first short story, Guts, was on Saint Gut-Free, and after reading it, I initially thought this might be the most exciting book, ever. Though it's highly sexually explicit, it keeps you on your toes, it makes you uncomfortable, yet it urges you to pursue the next page and the page after. 

You can read Guts here.

I guess it speaks volumes for Palaniuk who has the guts (haha) to publish such a disgusting piece of text, because it's one of those things people would either love or condemn. The fact that the short story can evoke feelings of disgust and sympathy for the character takes it to a new level, in my opinion. Digging deeper into my reaction, I suppose the mark of good author is his ability to churn emotions from words, and on retrospection, I realise my favourite books are those that made me think and feel alot. While I do not fancy the detailed expository on "getting off", the amount of dark humor in the Guts is amazing.

I personally feel that Guts was the opening gambit to draw readers into reading Haunted. Sadly, the rest of the short stories fall short of expectations. They were dark and interesting, some were okay, but not as good.

Some good short stories:

Something's Got to Give by Countess Foresight

Dog Years by Mr Whittier

Exodus by Director Denial

The main reason I have mixed feeling for this novel is because of the amount of gross shit it has. Getting your guts sucked out, pulling your fingernails, eating a cat, ok fine, it's provocative, it's good. I felt things were spiraling out of hand in the later part with self-castration, hacking fingers and toes, and slicing a hunk of ass from a live being. That's not provocative, that's just trying too hard, it's bordering on perverse. But looking at the bigger picture, Haunted by Chuck Palaniuk is an excellent satire on human selfishness and greed. These people are resorting to self-mutilation because they want to frame themselves as victims under Mr Whitter's evil machination guised under a "Writers' Retreat", so that their next bestselling book would be about their 3 months torture. Omg, yes take a moment to soak up the insanity of it all.  

From reading reviews on Goodreads, it is said that Haunted defintiely loses out to Palaniuk's other works. Would absolutely try Fight Club. I would give Haunted a 3.5/5. 

Being a model student I am, I gave my brother's POP a miss 2 years ago because I didn't want to skip school or CCA (I can't remember which), LOL I'm not kidding. I was rather looking forward to seeing a collective group of men celebrating their first 2 months of service but when I was walking up to the seats on the platform I felt like I was gonna faint from the bloody smelly fumes emanating from the guys. I honestly had reservations on putting my arm around my army friends because they were so sweaty and smelly and disgusting but after awhile of walking under the sun, looking for people while clad in semi-long sleeves (such a genius) I think I had soaked up the smelliness of it all. But smelly guys are ok ah, at least to Thien who was eyecandying anyone in green. To quote: "You look in this direction, I look in that, we see got any good looking sergeants."

My friend HW, who didn't march at all but still as sweaty yuck

Congrats to all who have 22 more months to serve! :-)

Last Party - MIKA