Jesus returned alive from dead state after three days. But what happens when mere mortals die only to come back to life after few hours and in some cases after few days. What do they experience while they were dead? How different are they now? Director David Gelb's thriller, The Lazarus Effect starring Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde explores a nightmarish realm between the boundaries of the life we know and what comes after.  

“I loved the idea of really exploring the concept of being brought back to life, "says Gelb and adds, "What would you experience while you were gone?  How would you be different when you came back? And what might you potentially bring back with you?"

While Lazarus is predominantly a horror film, Gelb reveals that there are elements of medical thriller and sci-fi too in the movie. The story builds on a mysterious medical reality that has resulted in more than 3 dozen documented cases of the so-called Lazarus Phenomenon – when a patient spontaneously returns to life even after resuscitation has failed, named for 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 euthanized 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.

Shares Gelb, "The young scientists in our film set out to give patients and loved ones hope, but they discover that there can be horrible consequences to playing with the power of life. As events begin to unfold, the story takes a sharp turn into becoming an absolutely terrifying thrill ride where you don’t know what’s going to happen, you don’t know who the next character to disappear is going to be, and the scares are pretty intense.”  

Gelb, who turns from his award-winning documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi to the realm of mounting fear in this new film, has gone all out diving into the obsessive and often petrifying questions evoked by the prospect of manipulating the most unknowable human reality of all: death.  

The Lazarus Effect will open in theaters across India on 6th March.