Lazareth – Movie Review (2/5)

LAZARETH is a new Post-apocalyptic Thriller that follows three women in a remote cabin with a deadly pandemic luring around them. A lot of potential but a story that focuses on the wrong things. Read our full Lazareth (2024) movie review here!

LAZARETH is a new movie starring Ashley Judd. From the opening scene, I was intrigued, and while I had an idea of what twists would come, that part still worked. It’s a post-apocalyptic thriller and as someone who has watched many post-apocalyptic movies and series, it felt familiar. In a good way, mind you.

What wasn’t good for the storytelling – for me, anyway – was that the focus ended up being exactly the opposite of what I wanted. Rather than focusing on the world of three women, who had spent the past decade cut off from the rest of the world due to a deadly pandemic, it became a teen drama that did not work for me.

Continue reading our Lazareth (2024) movie review below. Out in select theaters and On Demand from May 10, 2024.

Three women in a cabin after the apocalypse

As is so often the case – especially since 2020 – the end of the world begins with a virus. A pandemic makes way for this story to play out in a post-apocalyptic world. We follow three women living in the woods in a remote cabin while a deadly pandemic continues to haunt what’s left of the world.

Or actually, Lazareth begins ten years earlier when the virus has just gotten out of control. Here we meet Lee (Ashley Judd), who is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her two orphaned nieces, Imogen and Maeve.

Following this opening scene, where we do get to see what she will do to keep them all safe, there’s a time jump. Imogen and Maeve are on the brink of being adults, but the three have made a life for themselves over the past decade.

Aunt Lee continues to do all she can to protect her two nieces from a self-destructing world. This means raising them in isolation in the middle of the woods. Of course, all you need for such an isolation to be broken is for an outsider to arrive. A young man at that.

And it all unravels…

Within moments almost, their peaceful existence is threatened and hormones are running wild. Which was around the time when I started losing interest. I felt like I had seen it all before. And better!

This is probably why I’m not happy with Lazareth as a post-apocalyptic thriller. I feel robbed of the good movie that this could have been. Instead, I feel like I was watching a movie where I kept waiting for the emotional hormonal stupidity to take a backseat. It just never happened and then it was over.

Also, there’s the twist. Not only did I call it from the beginning, but I was actually sort of fearing that this would be the twist because I’ve already seen it in other post-apocalyptic thrillers. Many, in fact!

For the record, I was happy with the performances of the two young adult women. Sarah Pidgeon (The Wilds) plays the older sister, Maeve, while Katie Douglas (Level 16) portrays the younger Imogen. Also, Asher Angel (Shazam!) does a good job as Owen, the young man who breaks up the otherwise idyllic life in the cabin.

Watch Lazareth on Demand or in Select Theaters

The writer and director of this post-apocalyptic thriller is Alec Tibaldi. While I appreciate the world-building and core story, I was not a fan of how the runtime was spent. The pacing was slow and important key plot elements were rushed to make room for the parts that I did not care for.

The runtime of Lazareth is just 86 minutes, but to me, it felt much longer. The core story was only for a short film, so there were plenty of drawn-out moments and repetitive elements that could’ve been left out. Maybe I’m just disappointed that the beginning of the movie (and the good twist) wasn’t the core focus.

Watch it if you’re a fan of thrillers and one of the cast members. Otherwise, I’d wait until it’s on a streaming platform. For your average fan of post-apocalyptic thrillers, there’s nothing new here. Unfortunately!

Lazareth is out in Select Theaters and On Demand from May 10, 2024.

Details

Director: Alec Tibaldi
Writer: Alec Tibaldi
Cast: Ashley Judd, Sarah Pidgeon, Katie Douglas, Edward Balaban, Asher Angel