The Lazarus Effect - Movie Reviews (2025)

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

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 23, 2022

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Jun 9, 2022

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 2, 2021

A sci-fi/horror film that had all the makings of success, but it fell short.

Full Review | Jan 2, 2021

Formulaic chills and thrills.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4.0 | Sep 13, 2020

With the pedigree of talent assembled, The Lazarus Effect should have been a better movie.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jul 16, 2020

The Lazarus Effect isn't a terrible horror movie, but it's so by the book, you see so many ways that it has potential to be much more interesting.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 6, 2020

It's a film with an obviously limited budget that it uses well when it comes to production design and effects but, in the end, causes the filmmakers to skimp on the story.

Full Review | Jul 3, 2020

A film filled with stunning metaphoric cinematography, killer sound design and a story rooted in fact and faith that invites reflection and discussion...rises to the top of the genre with defining elements of fascinating and intelligent subject matter.

Full Review | Dec 8, 2019

There's nothing wrong with the narrative as such; watching some monster murder a bunch of people is pretty much what you turn on a horror movie to see. The problem is that in this case neither the monster nor the victims are remotely interesting.

Full Review | Sep 18, 2019

It's just a shame that The Lazarus Effect takes a viable premise and lively cast and simply flatlines them.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 20, 2019

The characters in this forgettable piece of horror schlock can "bring back" all the dead dogs and dead people they want; just please, please don't bring me back. I don't want to go back.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/10 | Mar 14, 2019

Despite a talented cast, "Lazarus" is a sub-par horror film taken from spare parts of more successful films.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Jan 24, 2019

The Lazarus Effect has good scares and some genuinely intriguing notions. It's also well-acted, well-made and, at 83 minutes, has a commendably brisk pace.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Dec 20, 2018

While the storyline is not the most original, this film still gives a few good scares.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Nov 3, 2018

It never answers the most important question: how did this film get a theatrical release and not go straight to DVD? Truly, some things man was not meant to know.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 2, 2018

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.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Sep 1, 2017

A decent, well-made, small-scale genre film with a great cast of on-the-cusp players, The Lazarus Effect begins as a modern-day spin on Frankensteinian mad science, but segues into more demonic matters.

Full Review | Aug 16, 2017

David Gelb's new film is so dependent on the classic standbys of the genre, and so slight in every other regard, that it immediately draws attention to just how creaky they've gotten over the years

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Feb 23, 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.

Full Review | Jan 21, 2016