Taglines: Lazareth must be protected at any cost.
Lazareth movie storyline. Following the death of their parents, Lee (Ashley Judd) adopts her nieces, Imogen (Katie Douglas) and Maeve (Sarah Pidgeon), and raises them in a remote cabin as a deadly pandemic rages on around them. For over 10 years, the girls are raised to never leave the woods, avoid any and all interaction with outsiders, and ultimately rely on Lee as their only connection to the outside world.
Lee has convinced the girls this is the key to survival in what is now an infectious and violent world. But when Imogen and Maeve discover an injured man in the nearby woods, Lee’s absolute control begins to disintegrate as their faith in her, and everything they’ve ever known, begins to unravel.
Lazareth is an American thriller film directed by Alec Tibaldi and starring Ashley Judd, Katie Douglas, Asher Angel, Sarah Pidgeon, Christine Uhebe and Edward Balaban. The screenplay was written by Alec Tibaldi. It was released on May 10, 2024 in the United States by Vertical Entertainment.
Film Review for Nazareth
Lazareth establishes key maturity differences between Maeve and Imogen within minutes of the first act. Maeve takes her aunt’s rules seriously, but has a gnawing interest in what’s happening around them. What does Lee actually encounter when she goes looking for supplies? Imogen is content with her surroundings but bored with Maeve and her aunt. She sees them both as authority figures. Imogen doesn’t register a hurt man as a threat. His physical presence intoxicates her in a way she’d never been able to express. Imogen’s sexual desires were never dormant. Her longings lived in fantasy and the theoretical until the introduction of a viable partner.
Writer/director Alec Tibaldi (Spiral Farm, The Daphne Project) lights a fuse that cannot be extinguished. Lee raised her nieces with a cult-like devotion to their sanctuary, but she also trained them to be supremely capable and equal partners in all decisions. This ingrained fortitude opens a Pandora’s box of how to handle the interloper. He’s another mouth to feed with dangerous baggage.
The people who injured him aren’t going to stop looking, either. Lee’s also keenly aware of Imogen’s carnal awakening and Maeve’s desire for greater understanding. They can no longer remain sheltered from the outside world. What are they each willing to sacrifice to accomplish individual goals?
The forest feels like an impenetrable barrier shrouded in fog. Almost all the action takes place in and around the immediate house. The characters conserve resources by using candles and lamps. This focuses the camera on their faces with dimly lit backgrounds. Lee’s stern demeanor, Maeve’s angry resilience, and Imogen’s provocative flirting have more dramatic heft that way. Lazareth gets style points for an eerie production design and a clever lighting scheme that sells the settings.
The film does fall prey to convenient progression when the story has to take obviously sinister turns. The bad guys are laughably the worst hide-and-seek players of all time. Tibaldi wants to build to a climax on his own terms. It becomes contrived because killers would open every door to find a victim. The characters conceal themselves in ways that just aren’t credible. This is a sizable flaw in the plot’s execution. Tibaldi resorts to bated breath gimmicks that make no sense at all.
Pidgeon and Douglas have good chemistry as very different sisters, but they have a staggering height difference and look nothing alike. Pidgeon towers at 5′ 10″ while Douglas is a petite 5′ 0″. Filmmakers usually shoot from a forced perspective to try and mitigate this visual imbalance. It’s peculiar to say the least, but not necessarily a negative. Their performances are sound and entirely effective.
Lazareth (2024)
Directed by: Alec Tibaldi
Starring: Ashley Judd, Katie Douglas, Asher Angel, Sarah Pidgeon, Christine Uhebe, Edward Balaban, Paulina Patino, Sophia Baaden, Harley Reid, Eddie Wollrabe, Kyla Brown
Screenplay by: Alec Tibaldi
Production Design by: Sean Roney
Cinematography by: Martim Vian
Film Editing by: Joel Griffen
Costume Design by: Erin Aldridge Orr
Set Decoration by: Ryan Lloyd
Art Direction by: Bree Judah, Matt Lask, Amber Poer, Nic Prentiss
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Vertical Entertainment
Release Date: May 10, 2024
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