The Lazarus Effect - NDE movie

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The Lazarus Effect
Medical researchers Frank and his fiancée, Zoe, have developed a serum, code-named "Lazarus". It was intended to assist coma patients but is shown to actually be able to bring the dead back to life.

With the assistance of their friends, Niko, Clay and videographer Eva, they run a successful trial on a recently deceased dog. However, they notice that the dog is behaving differently than it did when it was alive - its cataracts disappear, it loses its appetite, and it demonstrates other strange abilities. Tests reveal that the serum, instead of dissipating, is constructing strange new synapses within the dog’s brain.

When the dean of their university learns of their underground experiments, their project is shut down. They are also informed that a major pharmaceutical corporation has bought out the company that funded their research. The company and their attorneys confiscate everything associated with the project.

Frank and his team sneak back into their lab to duplicate the experiment so that they can prove that they created the serum. During this attempt things go horribly wrong and Zoe is fatally electrocuted. Unwilling to let her go, Frank uses the serum to resurrect her. Initially, the procedure appears to be a success, but the team soon realizes that something is wrong with Zoe. She claims that when she died, she went to her version of Hell which was a nightmare originating from her childhood; as a child,


 
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Since this borrows the title of Sam Parnia's book The Lazarus Effect and purports to be about NDEs, its disappointing that it appears to go off at some wild tangent. With a few exceptions, I find reality far more fascinating and interesting than fiction. I felt much the same about the movie Red Lights which though touching on some of the subjects discussed on this forum, managed to go off at a tangent too.

I think that's just me. But I can't help seeing it as a missed opportunity. Perhaps deliberately missed, or maybe not even considered. There was also a movie (can't remember the title) in which a ouija board was used, but that was just some sort of frivolous nonsense which failed to take the subject seriously.

I wonder what anyone else thinks. Do such movies help to get these subjects into the public attention, or do they act as a smokesceen to cover up the fact that there is something worth looking at in the real world, something of interest beyond the fiction and special effects of the movies?
 
I agree that most moveis regarding the paranornal, always push it a bit to far, just to get that extra gasp-of-approval from the audience. The most effective paranormal/horror-movies are those who keeps you guessing all through the movie.

I hadn't looked through the above movie when I wrote the above post, but now that I have I'm not sure I can recommend it. It did have its moments though, but it felt cramp and lo-budget. But it is watchable - and since I'm a sucker for the concept (NDE) I watch any film on that subject. :)
 
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I suppose if Zoe went to heaven instead of hell it would make the movie too boring for the typical movie audience? Why do movies about the paranormal have to be horror movies? No matter ... I may see it anyway because Olivia Wilde is playing Zoe. :D
 
I suppose if Zoe went to heaven instead of hell it would make the movie too boring for the typical movie audience? Why do movies about the paranormal have to be horror movies? No matter ... I may see it anyway because Olivia Wilde is playing Zoe. :D

Well, there is some `heaven-movies´ out there too, but then they are not in the category horror, for obvious reason. :)
Like What Dreams May Come (it contained a little hell though ;) ), or The Lovely Bones, or Hereafter, or The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Astral City: A Spiritual Journey (Nosso Lar) contained a bit of hell (or rather it was Limbo), but it was fairly good.






 
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