TA group of scientists led by romantic couple Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde are working on a project to briefly restore brain function in clinically dead patients in hopes of allowing medical professionals longer time to work on critical patients. Their experiments seem to work better than expected when a revived dog continues to live long after the effect of its treatment should have worn off. When a laboratory accident electrocutes one of their own, the others decide to use the technique on the deceased, with seeming success. But they soon realize that something is not quite right with their colleague.

The movie has some style, and some creepy moments, but it works better when the story flirts with how guilt and religion can effect one's psyche in positive and negative ways. The cast is fine, although it was odd seeing the usually funny Duplass in a straight-faced role.

THE LAZARUS EFFECT is yet another B-movie sci-fi horror combo set in a high-tech laboratory and involving scientific experiments gone awry. I've seen so many of these over the past decade, and they always involve robots, clones, hybrids, genetics, you name it. This one's a bit like FLATLINERS and involves researchers experimenting with raising the dead. The first half, which is all set up, is pretty interesting, and features solid performances from a familiar cast including Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover and the underrated Sarah Bolger. Sadly, the second half wastes all that potential by moving into silly supernatural territory, with random demonic possession and predictable kills. The intellect vanishes to be replaced by pure hokum, and you're left considering what could have been.

Couple Frank (Mark Duplass) and Zoe (Olivia Wilde) are medical researchers developing a serum to bring back the recently deceased. Clay (Evan Peters) and Niko (Donald Glover) are their assistants. Eve (Sarah Bolger) is a student videotaping the trials. They break the grant contract by using dead animals instead of coma patients. A large pharmaceutical buys the grant company and confiscates all the research material for breaking the contract. The group sneaks into the lab to continue the research. Zoe is accidentally electrocuted and Frank brings her back to life despite everybody's objections.

These are good actors doing a mediocre little horror. The plot is derivative. The script is nothing special. My main problem is that director David Gelb telegraphs every turn this movie takes. It lays out the story from the start and walks down the straight forward path. The kills could have been more grotesque but the movie holds back. The jump scares are essentially turning the lights on and off. The actors are good but there are no surprises.