The Lazarus Effect

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2:20

The Lazarus Effect

PG-13

2015

1h 23m

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

13%

Tomatometer

107 Reviews

23%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

Medical researcher Frank (Mark Duplass), his fiancée Zoe (Olivia Wilde) and their team have achieved the impossible: they have found a way to revive the dead. After a successful, but unsanctioned, experiment on a lifeless animal, they are ready to make their work public. However, when their dean learns what they've done, he shuts them down. Zoe is killed during an attempt to recreate the experiment, leading Frank to test the process on her. Zoe is revived -- but something evil is within her.

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Critics Consensus

The Lazarus Effect has a talented cast and the glimmer of an interesting idea, but wastes it all on insipid characters and dull, recycled plot points.

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Candice Frederick

Reel Talk Online

09/01/2017

D+

The Lazarus Effect merely coasts by on a very thin script that is really just a placeholder to get to what is obviously its larger purpose: to frighten the audience so much that we forget that we're watching a bad movie.

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Lenika Cruz

The Atlantic

01/21/2016

Given the low-budget film's bottle-episode feel, horror fans could've gotten extra mileage out of a disorienting and original psychological treatment.

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Ben Sachs

Chicago Reader

03/06/2015

It's thematically thin but competently made and good for a few scares.

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Keith Garlington

Keith & the Movies

08/23/2022

2.5/5

It simply does nothing original and leaves no real lasting effect.

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Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

06/09/2022

1/4

With a runtime of 83 minutes, the movie is all build-up, while the payoff resorts to silly horror conventions, abandoning whatever scientific goodwill it had established.

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Richard Crouse

Richard Crouse

02/02/2021

2/5

What it doesn't have is the sense of fun necessary to pull off the cheesy moments or the scares to sell it as a full-blown horror story.

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Nathan B

@RT64357426 Apr 20

It had potential but is let down by a pretty shallow script

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Ed B.

@EdLee Apr 12

The Lazarus effect, mediocre movie about scientists at university having experiments on deceased animals and ultimately their own, using serum that brings dead alive. Some freaky supernatural themes towards end. It’s not awful.

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Aiden

@Xridica Feb 28

Not the worst movie I've watched but still. Bad writing for characters, not scary even though it's meant to be horror, and way too fast pace for much suspense. More of a sci-fi thriller if you ask me. Still enjoyable in that light.

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K. Ryan C

@Milkbooty25 Jan 24

Olivia is a babe, and she acted the hell out of it.. thank God I waited ten years to stream it for free. This movie is so ass I want to cry.

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Catherine D.

@CatherineOrozco Jan 4

The movie was good! Was it a little predictable? Yes. However, it was entertaining and did have that fear factor. I like how it became a bit hard to tell what was real or not.

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David L

@RT85619132 Nov 1

This isn’t as terrible as all these reviews would have you believe. It’s not perfect but it’s an entertaining and enjoyable watch. I have seen movies that were way, way worse than this. It has some good scares and a really great cast. Definitely worth checking out.

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David Gelb

Director

Mark Duplass

Frank

Olivia Wilde

Zoe

Donald Glover

Niko

Evan Peters

Clay

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Critics Consensus: Focus is Sleek and Slick But Too Twisty

Mark Duplass Discusses The Lazarus Effect, Togetherness, and Raising the Dead

The Lazarus Effect: Trailer 1

2:20

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Synopsis

Medical researcher Frank (Mark Duplass), his fiancée Zoe (Olivia Wilde) and their team have achieved the impossible: they have found a way to revive the dead. After a successful, but unsanctioned, experiment on a lifeless animal, they are ready to make their work public. However, when their dean learns what they've done, he shuts them down. Zoe is killed during an attempt to recreate the experiment, leading Frank to test the process on her. Zoe is revived -- but something evil is within her.

Director: David Gelb
Producer: Jason Blum, Jimmy Miller, Cody Zwieg
Screenwriter: Luke Dawson, Jeremy Slater
Distributor: Relativity Media
Production Co: Blumhouse, Mosaic
Rating: PG-13 (Some Sexual References|Intense Seq of Horror Violence|Terror)
Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 27, 2015, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 2, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $25.8M
Runtime: 1h 23m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital