Kevin C. Johnson of the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" gave the film two out of four stars, saying ""The Lazarus Effect" boasts nothing special. It's not going to provide much relief for horror-starved audiences." Keith Staskiewicz of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a C−, saying "I would have loved to see more from the filmmakers, daring to fail while staking out some new terror incognita instead of just going through the motions of an experiment for which we already have the results." In North America, the film opened to number five in its first weekend, with $10,203,437, behind "Focus", "", "", and "Fifty Shades of Grey".