User reviews

Any five to ten minute excerpt from this movie could easily lead a viewer to conclude that this is a well made horror or suspense thriller. The production values are high, the performances good, and so on.

The problem is that the parts of the film don't fit together. The sequence of action has the usual slow build and accelerating pace of any good thriller, but while the set-up is promising, and the events proceed logically enough as interesting and sympathetic characters are frightened, threatened or killed off, the reasons underlying the events remain obscure.

Hints and suggestive exposition are introduced, and then forgotten. There are explicit references to religious-themed horror fantasy, speculative science, and even a few elements of a possible conspiracy. An elaborate backstory is gradually revealed, and then abruptly dismissed. The conclusion doesn't really conclude anything: there's a decisive ending, but no resolution, no revelation, not even a clear idea of the probable consequences.

It's possible a re-edit could address these issues and make it a decent film. As it stands, though, it just doesn't work.

TA group of scientists led by romantic couple Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde are working on a project to briefly restore brain function in clinically dead patients in hopes of allowing medical professionals longer time to work on critical patients. Their experiments seem to work better than expected when a revived dog continues to live long after the effect of its treatment should have worn off. When a laboratory accident electrocutes one of their own, the others decide to use the technique on the deceased, with seeming success. But they soon realize that something is not quite right with their colleague.

The movie has some style, and some creepy moments, but it works better when the story flirts with how guilt and religion can effect one's psyche in positive and negative ways. The cast is fine, although it was odd seeing the usually funny Duplass in a straight-faced role.

A group of medical students discover a way to bring dead patients back to life.

The Lazarus Effect stars Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass, Evan Peters, Sarah Polger and is directed by David Gelb. This is another horror movie and we've seen those couple of jump scares before; but it does have some very creepy imagery and when this start happening it's not that bad. The film deals with a theory debating whether when you die some chemical elements in your brain make you see the white light at the end of the tunnel or you actually go to heaven and this stage is just some kind of process to enter it. In fact, it has you wondering is she possessed or is she just unlocking her brain and that's what triggers this weird version of herself? However, it's not giving you enough information to let you decide what's actually going on. Ultimately The Lazarus Effect feels like a horror version of Lucy but messier this time with some horror things happening in order to to keep the audience entertained for what it is. Sometimes it tries to be smart but gives you conflicting information and then you're lost, it doesn't quiet know where to go. Finally, actors are functional, especially Evan Peters who has some pretty good lines and clearly is the comic relief in the movie.

Overall The Lazarus Effect is more or less what you expect it to be, an horror movie with some jump scares as usual but with some pretty cool and relevant imagery. It's an effective but very messy movie.

I really wanted The Lazarus Effect to be good. It has a great cast and an interesting premise, and I love horror movies so why should this be any different? Well first of all calling it a horror movie is a bit of a stretch. Yeah, there are "scares" but they're all the cliché flickering lights, someone coming up behind someone else's back, fake out, cheap ass easy jump scares that we've seen a million times and you can see them coming from a mile away.

The best thing this movie has going for it is its atmosphere. It all takes place in an empty laboratory and there are some moments where you feel the claustrophobia of being trapped in a place where dead bodies are kept and weird surgical instruments all over the place. But none of that psychological horror is expounded on. It's just like one second I'm like, "hm, this could actually go somewhere" and then two seconds later a freaky face pops on screen and it's like ugh, why bother.

The acting in this movie is fine for what it is. Aside from the two leads, Evan Peters was the only character I cared about because he was the comic relief but he just isn't given enough to work with. Everything about the movie feels rushed. The characters aren't developed enough. The movie is barely 80 minutes long and it still has dull moments. It also borrows a lot of elements from other horror movies. A good chunk of the movie is straight up "Event Horizon" in a laboratory with some "The Shining" and "Lucy" sprinkled here and there. Sure there is some creepy imagery but it's stuff we've seen a million times. If they had actually built up tension instead of relying on stupid jump scares then maybe the imagery would have some effect. As it stands, it's just like... what a waste.

I can't give this movie a lower score because it did have potential and I liked the cast. There are some moments that are admittedly cool, however brief they are. Oh, and none of the movie makes sense. It starts off plausibly with these doctors performing weird experiments but as soon as sh*t starts to go down, any sense of realism goes out the window. The Lazarus Effect isn't terrible - there's just no reason to see it. Go see "Event Horizon" or "The Shining" if you're in the mood for some real psychological scares.

Like I said in my Wild Card review, sometimes I don't get why movies get such low ratings on here. I have seen plenty of movies that deserves a 5 or lower, this is not one of them.

This movie is short and sweet. It is entertaining, never boring, cool stuff happens, actors are good. I got certain Hollow Man vibes.. A team is working on some amazing stuff, and the environments (labs and such) are just nice and cozy.

I don't think The Lazarus Effect was meant to be a big, thought provoking masterpiece, it was meant as a short and entertaining horror flick. And it is exactly that. It's got a couple of actors we've seen before, (including the very cute Olivia Wilde) which always helps in this kind of horror quick fix.

So, to sum up, don't expect very big things, expect a couple of jump scares, a nicely paced plot, decent effects.. It's just easily seen. (translated directly from Norwegian: 'lettsett')

Sadly this is an ultimately unrewarding film, to read the plot, you'd be forgiven for expecting something dark, original and interesting, when in reality it's generic, flat, and badly realised.

The production values are a little poor, and the storytelling is disjointed, lacks any sort of core plot, at times it seemed to make no sense.

A few times they could have gone for real scares and horror, sadly no such moments ever happened. The dog could have been good.

Quite poor. 4/10

First of all, you'll probably get more entertainment out of these user reviews than you will by seeing the actual movie. To clarify...aren't all possession movies inherently pro-Christian since the inclusion of demons and hell implies that there is are angels and heaven (since Lucifer was cast out of heaven and became the devil)?

As someone that has seen lot of REALLY bad horror films, I can safely say that The Lazarus Effect isn't all that bad. It's got a pretty decent cast in Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde, but it's a cheap horror film. You get the predictable jump-scares, you get the dialed in dialogue, what else did you expect?

You don't go to see horror films because they're particularly well written or original. This movie is literally just a hodgepodge of movies like: Carrie, Lucy (the whole 10% of your brain thing), The Phoenix Project, Pet Semetary, Flatliners, etc.

I actually somewhat enjoyed this, but you realistically need to set your expectations 6 feet under. Maybe this film will find a way to resurrect some of your faith in the horror genre that way. It sure as hell isn't going to resurrect the $10 bucks you spent on the ticket at the theater.

Additionally, what ever happened to the novelty of watching a film before reviewing it?

Read the full review and others like it on the Drive-in Zeppelin website

Quality of production was good, acting was good, what was included in the storyline was good, I enjoyed it overall, but I thought that more could have been added to make this film stellar. There was too much that was unexplained. Plus this being a fairly short film, they could have added more scenes, especially leading up the the spooky stuff. I felt that the progression of events was rushed overall. Also the character development was a bit rushed. I could have understood the rushed character development more, if there were more detail provided about the ideas. I was really looking forward to this film, and I wish that it lived up to the hype. I did see the similarities in plot description as "flatliners" but this movie was presented in a totally different way. I really like the ideas used in this movie, I hope they make a second and more complete version.

The Lazarus Effect (2015)

** (out of 4)

A group of scientist discover a formula that could help bring the dead back to life. The main scientist Frank (Mark Duplass) and his fiancé (Olivia Wilde) mess up when signing their contract and end up getting kicked out of the laboratory. Needing to get enough of their records to carry on, the group sneak back into the lab but after an accident Frank's fiancé is killed. They decide to use the formula to bring her back to life but things don't go as planned.

THE LAZARUS EFFECT has a few interesting ideas and some great performances, which keep it from being a complete trainwreck but there's no question that the film doesn't take its subject serious enough to have the film work. There's no question that there are elements of FLATLINERS here but people will also be thinking of LUCY, which was released the previous year as this film.

It should be noted that without the end credits this movie runs just 76 minutes, which is extremely short in today's time. I personally love shorter movies but this one here is just so uneven that the film pretty much ends just as you feel it should be taking off. I say that because there are some interesting ideas about Heaven and Hell here but sadly very few of them are fully explored because once the fiancé is brought back to life the film turns into a rather generic horror movie. I'm not sure why the screenplay would introduce such good idea but then not do anything with them and especially since the film is so short and could have been expanded on.

The performances in the film is what save it and help carry the material. Both Duplass and Wilde are very good and especially believable in their roles. Supporting players Sarah Bolger, Evan Peters and Donald Glover are also very good. Technically speaking the film features a nice score, good cinematography and the director certainly makes a professional looking film. With that said, THE LAZARUS EFFECT completely falls apart during the final fifteen minutes, which is a real shame.

When I found this film, I thought it would be a cinematic approach to Lazarus Syndrome, which is the apparently spontaneous reactivation of the heartbeat after all attempts to resuscitate a patient in cardiac arrest have failed. This is a very rare situation to happen, and I thought the movie would be about that. I was wrong.

The film's script follows a small group of young scientists who are carrying out a controversial and eventually revolutionary study: the creation of a serum that allows the dead to be reanimated. They are testing it on animals, but a bureaucratic twist ends up denying them the possibility of continuing the study. However, they decide to continue secretly, even though the results of tests on animals have revealed that there are dangerous brain changes, resulting from the application of the serum, in the resuscitated animals. After breaking into the lab at night, the group has an accident and one of the group's scientists dies. They then decide to use the serum to bring her back to life.

The film has an interesting base premise and one that will draw some inspiration from the source of "Frankenstein" and other mad or amoral scientists. These are fascinating and frightening topics, because we naturally fear those men who use their genius and wisdom without any moral concern to guide them. However, the film fails to develop this in the best way: the whole question that leads to the expulsion of the scientists from that laboratory is, to say the least, unconvincing, and any minimally serious scientist would be incapable of performing an experiment on human beings without solid positive results in the previous stages. It is a huge nonsense that tramples everything we consider as a "scientific method".

The cast has its good moments. Olivia Wilde does a really good job, she's convincing, and it's not difficult to sympathize with her character, for her stubbornness and sympathy. Mark Duplass didn't seem so committed or believable to me, but he has some very good moments, particularly in the second half of the film. Sarah Bolger (who I only knew from her role in the "Tudors" series) is beautiful, but in addition to her feminine beauty, she also gives us a mature and interesting interpretation, particularly in the final scenes of the film.

On a technical level, the film doesn't have much to offer us. The cinematography is fairly generic, and the editing appears to have been harsh, with mangled subplots and a total runtime reduced to just over an hour. The sets are good enough, especially the labs used in the filming, and the soundtrack is good enough, though not remarkable.

The Lazarus Effect is another example of a major Hollywood produced horror movie that is giving the horror genre a bad name. Everything that happens here is pretty much straightforward and therefore, boring. There were no surprises in the film or twists that take the story in an unexpected direction and gave the film some life.

Lazarus is just like I said above, it's a mix of Event Horizon + Lucy + Carrie, interpret that as you wish. The problem just like with Lucy is that the villain gets too powerful and there is basically no chance of survival, a lopsided battle. Where as with Carrie, we are given a reason for her breakdown and vengeance, in Lazarus we are given absolutely nothing, no motive, no nothing.

And of course, to no surprise the movie features plenty of flashing lights where characters appear and disappear into the darkness. It's cheap gimmicks like this that are used to create scares that ruins movies, versus actually building up tension and a thick atmosphere. The Lazarus Effect features nothing to boast about, not even it's cast since they are completely under utilized, everything here is dull.

But again, this was a Hollywood produced horror film so it's not surprise the movie is being torn apart by critics. Instead, skip this and watch the superior 'Flatliners', at least they provide some added depth and an eerie atmosphere!

I've long stopped going to horror movies expecting to get scared, or see anything remotely decent. Instead I view them as comedy movies, trying to entertain myself by how bad the films are, so it's pretty safe to say my expectations when seeing a horror movie are about as low as it gets and yet "The Lazarus Effect" still left me astonished by just how bad, uninteresting and not even remotely scary it was. There was nothing new or unique about the movie, and literally the only aspect of the movie that could be considered scary (if you're not already desensitized to those, like most people) were the jump scares, and even those were predictable.

I've been disappointed by a lot of movies, but this is thee first time it was bad enough that I actually took the time to write out a review.

Most Blumhosue produced films are utter trash(Jessabelle, The Purge, etc.) and I'm a big horror fan so this movie caught my eye. And I wasn't disappointed at all. Going in with an open mind, what I really liked about the film was that it didn't move into demonic territory to provide cheap scares. Sure, some pop up scares were cliché, but they didn't have to use demons to make the film creepy. Olivia Wilde is fantastic in her role, as is Evan Peters. The film also has a solid story, and borrows elements from Pet Semetary, The Shining, and Lucy(yes it makes sense). Without losing the plot in itself like recents like Project Almanac, it sticks to a meaningful script, and provides fun, campy scares. It wasn't golden, nor is it a new classic, but it's a brisk fun way to lose yourself in the macabre. It's also one of the better recent horror films. Defiantly recommend this, and I hope my review has helped!

The Lazarus Effect is a horror film that deals with a serum that can bring animals and people to life, but something is a little off when they do return and weird stuff starts to happen, well, weird stuff starts to happen around 45 minutes into this 1 hour and 20 minute movie. I thought that after seeing the runtime this movie was going to get into the horror elements quickly and sustain that right until the end as the trailer looked promising. Although the majority of the film is spent in a lab running tests on animals and boring and lengthy discussions about making the serum work and crap that we really don't care about. One of the biggest problems is that this movie tried to do too much above being a horror movie and as a result had no time for any scary moments. The movie was unoriginal with predictable scares that really failed to creep me out at all. Just when you think that the horror elements are coming into the film in the last act, they never really do, a couple of jump-scare moments that are predictable make up the only horror elements of the film and the last 30 minutes feel just not intense at all. The whole film lacks interest, you don't care for the first 45 minutes and then when something finally happens it is all things you have seen before and you still don't care.

Now i will say the highlight of the film is the cast, with Olivia Wilde, Danny Glover, Even Peters, Sarah Bolger and Mark Duplass they all put in some good (not great) performances that make the film still bearable to watch. Just, the film had an interesting synopsis and good actors but thats it, the crappy writing and crappy directing make this film just overall very dull and boring. They even have some minor subplot that they carry out right through the film for some "big" reveal that made absolutely no difference to anything and didn't change the way you perceive the character because you don't care. And the ending, well, also predictable, dumb, and made the whole movie suck even more. In the end this "horror" movie had potential but was wasted in every way imaginable, this is why the horror genre is hated so much; because of crap like this. - 3.2

A team of researchers discovers a serum that can wake the dead. They try it out on a dead dog and sure enough it comes to life, a bit in a bad mood more but nonetheless. Then the university shuts down the program and a corporation takes over and grabs all their research.

They decide to break into the lab and recreate the experiment by resurrecting another dog, this time around with a girl who gets to film everything. When Zoe, one of the doctors, flips on the switch she's electrocuted and dies. Her fiancée can't accept it so he decides to experiment on her and see if he can reanimate her. Sure enough, she also comes back but also not particularly thankful.

There's also something else going on with Zoe. When she was a little girl, she witnessed a room-full of people burn to death when the apartment caught fire and she couldn't help them. She's been traumatized by the experience till now. Slowly though, she starts developing powers. She can complete other people's sentences, she develops telekinesis. And eventually she starts killing her team mates. Of course she takes out the power so it's all dark. The survivors will try to battle her.

At some point the camera girl is taken to the event of the burning apartment and there's a neat revelation.

The Lazarus Effect is a short horror movie with a good premise and the lovely Olivia Wilde. One bit of science was pretty intriguing. But from there things go by the numbers--no lights, people confined in one or two rooms, no character to care for, no interesting dialogue. The movie is well-directed although clearly they could and should have done more with the story.

It's pretty interesting most of the way through but then ends like the writer got drunk while trying to write a twist ending. It teases like there's going to be some sort of redemption for a character then betrays that idea for no real reason.

All in all, it's one of those movies that you don't mind watching once but have no real desire to see again.

I love scary movies..but it takes a lot to creep me out...this one did just that. The story line was not very original (reminded me of Flatliners from the 90's)...but with a twist and more scares...it is a movie I suggest watching at night with the lights out. And then maybe sleep with a night light. Good movie with great acting. I would probably not buy it...but it is worth renting. I don't know why some people gave it such low votes, I really enjoyed it. I like movies that make me jump and look behind myself when I hear a noise. This movie did just that. I watched it alone..but you might want to watch it with a friend...cuz it really is creepy. ENJOY

I've seen so many movies I can no longer watch a movie without scanning through my mental catalog of films to find a similar match for what I'm watching at the time. The Lazarus Effect immediately brought to mind Flatliners. For the most part everything was the same except that Flatliners were trying to experience death whereas the students in The Lazarus Effect were trying to bring the dead back to life.

We all should know by now that whenever someone experiments with the dead and trying to bring them back to life--through whatever means--it never ends up well. The Lazarus Effect was no different.

I thought the movie was solid. It's classified as a horror and rightly so, but it really established itself as a serious and credible film by taking a scientific approach. This wasn't a case of mysticism, alien technology or demon possession. These were serious students trying to achieve a legitimate goal of temporarily bringing a person back from the dead so that medical professionals can save his/her life. The build-up was adequate and cohesive. The story made sense and didn't seem forced. Ultimately the goal was to scare you and there were enough dark flickering lights moments to do that as well.

I liked the movie. It's no theatrical masterpiece but it did have some originality and a good storyline. It looked as though there was some effort put into the movie and that's more than can be said for a lot of scary movies.

I was in college when "The Lazarus Effect" released, and for one reason or another, I never got around to watching the film. Eight years and two double shots of vodka later, I found myself scrolling through Amazon Prime one fateful night (May 14, 2023) trying to find something to watch, and I see that "The Lazarus Effect" is free. Huzzah! Seemingly the Gods have answered my prayers, and feeling appropriately tipsy, I settled in, got under some blankets, and clicked "Play." Talk about the biggest mistake of my life.

Wow, wow, and I must say again: Wow. "The Lazarus Effect" is about "a group of medical researchers discover a way to bring dead patients back to life." It's an asinine, ridiculous concept, but starring the beautiful Olivia Wilde, as well as Mark Duplass - a personal favorite actor of mine - I figured that the movie would work, at the very least, as a vessel for dumb fun. That couldn't be further from the truth, as "fun" is nowhere in this film's vocabulary. So, let's talk about its sins.

"The Lazarus Effect" is a mercifully short film at 83 minutes, thank the Lord. And with such a small runtime, you'd think that the movie would move at a brisk pace, being full of all the horror shenanigans that one could ever want. "Ha!", the movie seems to laugh in our face. "Ha!" Because, this film is neither quickly paced nor scary. With a whopping 38 minutes going by before the so-called horror actually takes place - by that point coming too little, too late, as the movie is, by all intents and purposes, almost over. So, whenever Olivia Wilde comes back from the dead, maybe possessed or maybe just evil, you won't find yourself caring about what happens next because the movie took way too long to get to that part.

How are the scares? Nonexistent. With cheap jump scares, generic visuals, and bloodless kills, the movie boasts an incredibly boring and by-the-numbers layout that we have all seen done before in much better films. And with all of that said, I'm done writing about this movie: I do not recommend "The Lazarus Effect," and I regret sitting down to watch it, and the only reason it gets two stars out of one is because of how beautiful Olivia Wilde is.

The Lazarus Effect had a decent premise - scientists attempting to discover a method to resurrect the recently deceased are forced to test their new experimental treatment on one of their team after she dies in an accident. Only she doesn't come back the same. She returns sinister, malevolent, and murderous. That concept with a production company like Blumhouse and a cast boasting Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, and Evan Peters made me think this had to be a solid horror flick. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my hopes. The writers of Lazarus Effect couldn't decide the rules for their own movie. Is evil Zoe battling with the darkness trying to take over, or just evil? Is she superpowered? Is she demonic? Is she preying on the others or just twisted? The script never seemed to figure out what they wanted the character to be. With Zoe being the central focus and character, the failure to solidify and develop her character sunk the rest of the film. Still not the worst. I liked the open ending with the terror multiplying for a potential sequel, but with a mediocre response to this film, a sequel will never happen. The Lazarus Effect doomed itself never to be resurrected.