‘The Lazarus Effect’ Reveals First Photo, and My, What Scary Eyes Olivia Wilde Has

One of the upcoming horror films that’s definitely on our radar in 2015 is ‘The Lazarus Effect,’ a new film from Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions—the same folks behind ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘Oculus’ (as well as awards season favorite ‘Whiplash’). Their latest film has a pretty outstanding cast, including Olivia Wilde, who is featured in the first photo and poster, along with her very black and very terrifying eyeballs.

EW debuted the first official image from ‘The Lazarus Effect,’ while MovieTickets.com premiered the poster, which definitely has a throwback vibe. Wilde stars in the film alongside Mark Duplass, Evan Peters, Sarah Bolger, and Donald Glover—and a few of those names don't sound like someone you might find in a horror movie. According to producer Jason Blum in his interview with EW, the casting was very deliberate:

The reason I love to do low-budget movies is you can try different things… have creative freedom and experiment, like our characters… The most important thing to make a movie scary is that the you forget you’re watching actors, and you think you’re watching real people. So I think if the audience sees someone they don’t necessarily associate with that genre, it make it feel more real. [sic]

Whatever the reasoning, the idea that we’ll see actors like Wilde, Duplass, and Glover in a horror film is pretty awesome. It’s not the first time Duplass has starred in a horror film, though: he recently appeared in the upcoming horror comedy ‘Creep,’ which debuted at last year’s SXSW film festival. Evan Peters, who also appears in ‘The Lazarus Effect,’ is definitely no stranger to the genre, as he’s starred in all four seasons of Ryan Murphy’s ‘American Horror Story’ on FX.

‘The Lazarus Effect’ is directed by David Gelb (‘Jiro Dreams of Sushi’), and focuses on a team of researchers who are working on bringing dead matter back to life. Unfortunately, their project leads to the death of one of their colleagues (Wilde), whom they revive with their research, simultaneously unlocking a sinister force. The team then attempts to confine their undead colleague in the lab and protect the outside world from their horrific discovery.

‘The Lazarus Effect’ hits theaters on February 27. Check out the first official photo and poster below: