
Three individuals have their meal at a remote cabin in the woods. One of America’s highlights is how they join hands and say a prayer before they commence the meal. This time, however, they are not giving the prayer to God. And that is because the glory apparently is giving thanks to the cabin, to the Lazareth that they constructed and which Lee (Ashley Judd) says has been their guardian, feeding, watering, and housing them. It is ‘specially’ not an affront, “an idea and a place’s union, and a multiverse in a universe.”
It is, however, only their single world. It’s rather apparent how in these dark days Maeve and Imogen are fascinated by Lee’s accounts of the times of Lazareth’s emergence, of people in towns and cities engaging in endless ‘omos’ activities. But it was followed up with a world pandemic. So, as you can expect, all hell broke loose. The infected were dead. The well came almost berserk.
Lazareth is adorned with candles and trinkets that hark back to the time before the outbreak that struck the world. The place feels almost cozy and comforting but then one gets glimpses of the harsh reality of the world outside, making it feel unwelcome. Each time Cuttlehead hunts for supplies wearing her hazmat suit, she returns with them packed away in her suitcase, and like the other girls, hastily rips unhinges her mask and gloves for incineration. She literally gives all her life to protect the girls from everything and to ensure their mental safety. When they ask for instance, “Can we come with you this time?”, she patiently sons me, this is about why I save you from so many things. You stay here and play in the woods. This is how it has to be.” They start off as children in the movie and later age into teenagers, one of them is Imogen, played by Katie Douglas, and Maeve portrayed by Sarah Pidgeon. And because of Lee’s overprotectiveness, they know very little of the world except for the fact that it’s exceptionally dangerous.
It focuses on the portrayal of three interconnected. And always looming themes, which are frequently tackled in both literature and cinema and as has been said, lie at the heart of what it means to be human.
The first one is a problem that each parent and guardian faces the issue of doing their best to protect children from fear and anguish, made worse in stark contrast with the fear and anguish caused by the virus and the other survivors. Whereas the girls are with her, Lee is careful not to drive the girls to an extreme where they would want to leave Nazareth.
The second is the thin grating of civilization. According to Lee, there are still a few such groups of people who are infected with the virus, they have devolved into whatever they could in order to survive. “Mother Nature revealed their true colors and now they are scavengers,” he says. We will see some of them turn to what they have always loathed: the takers”, the huts”, Seekers”.
Lee was also part of the picture. The very first scene of the film depicts a woman standing outside the cabin for food with a photo of children in her hand. Lee is about to hand her some tins when she sees the woman scratch her shoulder, which is a cue that this woman is a carrier. She interprets the danger and without an instant of hesitation, he pulls the trigger.
Violence and Terminators are not the only external factors that hinder the protection of the youth. Self-exploration a key element of the film demonstrates such threats so vividly. Imogen and Maeve are first shown as little girls but for a major portion of the film, the narrative follows them as teenagers played by Katie Douglas and Sarah Pidgeon. They too feel rebellious when they realize there is a teenage boy named Owen (Shazam’s Asher Angel), and the theme of sensuality by Brian Aldiss. They keep him safe in Lazareth so that they can watch his strong body and wash him while tending to his wounds.
Women’s sensuality and violence episodes remain at different levels of feelings: suspense, determination, and urgency.
The unsteady candle light along with the wood cracking in the start should provide comfort to the viewer, but as that slips into the barbarous beating, those very sounds turn ominous.
It is mainly because of the worries brought into the sequences of the movie that allow audiences to obtain recognition easily, but Judd as the producer and actor along with ale But in a very superficial way.
This movie does not appear to be particularly deep. It is a movie that is rather simple, yet effective.
For More Movies visit Like Lazareth (2024) on 123Movies