Death busters

From time immemorial, humans have sought the one power that has escaped our grasp: to reverse the haunting finality of death. But just how perilous might it be to mess with the most basic law of nature? What if exploring the mysterious gap between life and death opens the gateway to lurking evil we never imagined? Could it be that the wondrous possibility of reversing death is actually a path to the darkest corners of the human psyche and the very height of mortal fear?

The gripping, thought-provoking thrills begin with a group of renegade medical researchers who believe they may have stumbled on a breakthrough drug that could one day resurrect recently deceased patients. But when a lab accident takes the life of one of their own, they decide to rush into a spontaneous experiment, bringing her back to life in an extraordinary medical triumph and unleashing forces far beyond their comprehension.

Nightmarish realm

Without ever leaving the lab, The Lazarus Effect explores a nightmarish realm between the boundaries of the life we know and what comes after. The story builds on a mysterious medical reality that has resulted in more than three dozen documented cases of the so-called Lazarus Phenomenon - when a patient spontaneously returns to life even after resuscitation has failed, named after the Biblical figure who rose from the dead. The incidents have been shocking and macabre.

In 2010, a funeral worker in Colombia discovered a 45-year-old woman's body, long declared dead, starting to move shortly before burial.

In 2013, an Ohio man coded for 45 minutes and doctors told his son he was gone, but when the son came to say goodbye, a slight signal reappeared on the heart monitor and the man suddenly revived. Then there is recent case of a dog euthanised twice at an animal shelter in the Ozarks, only to be found sitting up in his kennel the next morning. (The dog was soon adopted - and named Lazarus.)

While scientists don't know precisely what might trigger a stopped heart's electrical system to restart, some have been inspired to explore whether this 'Lazarus Effect' can be harnessed through medical technology - and that is where the scientists in The Lazarus Effect begin, never imagining the terrifying place they'll end up.

The story of Er

This idea of returning from the dead has long been a human fascination and source of mythology reaching all the way back to the beginning of recorded history. One of the most famous instances is noted in the Bible, when Lazarus himself was brought back from the dead in John 11. Even further back, in Ancient Greece, the celebrated philosopher Plato documented the story of Er, a Greek solider who died in battle. After 10 days Er's body had not begun decomposing and, on the twelfth day, he rose from the dead. Plato's text documents Er's account of everything that happened to him when he died and what he came to believe happens in the afterlife.

Even today, a news report will surface about a person coming back to life after being pronounced dead. In 2007, a Venezuelan man had been declared dead but came back to consciousness just as an autopsy was about to be performed on his body. In 2012, there were reports of a dead man in Yemen who jolted back to life at his own funeral just as he was being placed in his grave. Most recently, there were even rumours and urban legends in Africa about people coming back to life after dying from Ebola.

How common is this phenomenon? No documentation can tell us, but the stories continue from around the world and across generations.

Those questions also intrigued executive producer Matt Kaplan, who first began developing the film at Lionsgate from a screenplay draft by Luke Dawson (Shutter), before founding Chapter One Films.

Brilliant, if offbeat, medical researchers

Dawson had forged a team of brilliant, if offbeat, medical researchers working in secret to crack the code of life after death. They were brash, tech-savvy, biotech pioneers very much of the 21st century - but engaged in one of the most ancient, and danger-fraught, biological quests of all.

"We fell in love with this story because it felt so different for contemporary horror," says Kaplan. "It wasn't a slasher film or a poltergeist film - it had a concept that was more sci-fi, but still full of the potential for exciting scares. The question of what could come back with you if you come back from the dead was an exhilarating one to explore."

Kaplan also brought in screenwriter Jeremy Slater (The Fantastic Four) to explore these fresh ideas - and also a most unexpected choice for director: David Gelb, whose debut feature, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, was a widely acclaimed documentary ode to the skills of an 85-year-old Japanese sushi master.

Once he came on board, Gelb worked closely with Slater to refocus the story, asking him to turn it inwards, to explore the deep-seated layers of psychological fear that swirl beneath the surface of our curiosity about the afterlife. Rather than focusing on external demons from a literal Hades, he asked Slater to consider the idea that the dark, persistent memories that stalk the shadowy corridors of the human mind - our inner demons - are the most frightening hell of all.

Childhood trauma

"David wanted to delve into the realms of memory and childhood trauma, to explore what the process of dying might actually do to someone's mind, especially if they had unresolved issues. The demons Zoe brings back with her are childhood demons that are now out of control," Slater explains. "David pushed things in a rich psychological direction that gets very intense."

Gelb and Slater also delved into the moral quandaries of tearing a departed soul from its natural path. When Zoe (Olivia Wilde) returns tormented by a ghastly reality in which her scariest memory plays over and over and her instincts are raging out of control, the team is faced with the idea that they've made a terrible mistake by bringing her back. "We raise the question of whether you have a moral obligation to not drag someone out of wherever they have gone - heaven or hell - without permission, even if you're doing it to reunite with someone you love," says Slater.

"At the start, you're really rooting for these researchers to succeed. But as things begin to unravel, the divisions between them get sharper and sharper," says Gelb. "Frank is 100% committed to this experiment, but at the expense of considering the moral ramifications. Meanwhile, Zoe has a more theological perspective. She's excited by the idea of helping people, but she has reservations about the lines between right and wrong. And when Zoe dies, they all start to see that the consequences of breaking the boundaries between life and death might go far beyond scientific knowledge."

Screenwriter Slater says that despite the horror that befalls the group, he can understand why it would be impossible for scientists to resist temptation. "I can think of people that I've lost in my life that I would use this serum on in a heartbeat just to have one more minute with them, one more chance to really say goodbye," he observes. "I'm sure everyone who sees this movie will have their own unfinished stories where you wish you could have one more moment to get closure. But the question always just under the surface is: Is messing with death going too far?"

The real-world chemical DMT

At the core of Zoe's strange experiences are questions about the real-world chemical DMT, a tryptamine compound found naturally in the human body, but is also a profoundly vivid hallucinogen that powers the famously trip-inducing plants used in Ayahuasca. Some scientists have explored the idea that organically occurring DMT could be behind some of the more surreal, spiritual experiences human beings report. Indeed, the psychopharmacologist Rick Strassman theorised in the 1990s that a massive release of DMT by the brain might explain the classic signs of so-called 'near-death experiences' with their universal elements of bright lights and blissful visions.

The ability for DMT to forge a dreamlike reality and to stretch our perceptions of time provides the researchers in The Lazarus Effect with a possible explanation for why Zoe awakens from her momentary death believing she has spent many years trapped in a blood-curdling memory.

"The idea in the film is that as your brain is being filled with DMT, this very powerful hallucinogen is kind of firing up your imagination. So as you are dying, you might go on a wild trip experiencing your entire life - or your darkest fears and emotions," explains David Gelb.

Adds screenwriter Jeremy Slater: "I've long been obsessed with the idea that there is DMT in people's brains and the speculation that at the moment of death, your brain actually floods your body with DMT, causing these vivid visions people have. It's an interesting part of the conversation of what happens when you die."

Zoe's visions, however, are not just from her imagination. They are from a very real and forbidding past, a past of fire and sin that seems to have thrown her into a relentless psychic abyss. This became the film's distinctive take on eternal damnation.

"We started asking the question: What if when you die, you don't just see your entire life flash before your eyes, but you're taken into a specific memory, the worst of your existence? We started thinking about that as a very personal version of hell," explains Gelb. "Is hell something that you make yourself, and then you are trapped in it forever?"

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