The Lazarus Effect: Amygdala Overdrive

I do not normally watch horror films, and the only reason I watched this one was because Donald Glover is in it and he is a very awesome man. But once I watched it, I was completely surprised.



Coincidentally, a lot of what they were saying in the movie had to do with my AP Psychology class since we just started our biological psychology chapter this week. For example, when the movie started, there were scientists doing an experiment on a pig and they were entering the brain, eventually reaching the amygdala. From my knowledge, the amygdala is responsible for conducting emotions; especially aggression. Therefore, considering the effects of the Lazarus effect, that scene was considerably foreshadowing.

One of the more interesting things about the movie (or the Lazarus phenomenon in general) is the debate over science and religion in explaining what happens when people die. The movie mainly revolves around man not being able to "play God" and shouldn't tamper with life and death. But since they did it anyways, and the results were abnormal and beyond basic comprehension, an evolutionary and psychodynamic theory was made:

• Evolutionary: when the special drug was administered, it failed to leave her brain and increased her neuro-activity. In other words, she began to use more than 10% of her brain. This caused her to expedite the process of human evolution by an immense amount, which resulted in her instability.
• Psychodynamic: There was this whole thing where Olivia Wilde's character had nightmares about her neighbors' apartment catching fire when she was little and her not being able to help them. When she died, she was stuck in the nightmare for years in her perspective when it was actually a couple of hours (characteristics of REM stages in sleep). So instead of her going to heaven, she was stuck in the hell of her biggest nightmare/regret infinitely, causing her to become a bit demonic. 

I'm trying not to spoil the movie. Pretty difficult.

What was the cause? Depends on your belief system. After a while, the movie became more horrific than psychological, but it was fun while it lasted. Overall, I would suggest watching it because it was well directed and written, and an entertaining film... despite the horror.