Don't Raise the Dead

Today another movie tells us why you shouldn't mess with bringing the dead back to life. The Lazarus Effect came out today and I can't wait for a chance to see it. If I hadn't had an appointment earlier I would've attempted to go to a small local theater to see it. I do plan to see it in the near future, so hopefully you'll see my review of it soon.

Anyways, The Lazarus Effect isn't the first movie to tell us why raising the dead might not be the smartest thing. Back in the day Stephen King wrote Pet Sematary (a book I didn't get to finish since college interfered with my personal reading schedule) where a little known place is able to raise the dead.

People used it to bring their dead pets back to life. Sometimes this went okay and other times the pets were...different when they came back to life. Of course it had to get to a point in the book where the husband was contemplating using the place to bring his dead son back to life. I won't say what happens, but I will say that it's one of the reasons I'm really nervous about finishing the book.

But people's interest in raising the dead extends farther back than Stephen King, of course.

This might be because we, as mortal creatures, fear death and never want to die. We form strong connections to our friends and family, so seeing them go can be a big deal. We may try to deny that they're really gone. While I believe in reincarnation but not because of fear, the fact is that sometimes a loved one dies and the person that's still alive turns to religion to consul them.

People may turn to belief in an afterlife to believe that their loved one still lives on and, someday, they'll meet again.

I am not surprised necromancy is a thing as why wait until death to meet up again with a loved one? Why deal with fearing death and instead control it? Why not use people's fear of the dead to rule the world?

The second question there is talked about in the Harry Potter series by Lord Voldermort and his followers known as Death Eaters. Dealing with death by 'defeating it' is an issue that expands through many genres and age groups.

The Lazarus Effect's title seems to be in reference to the story in the New Testament. As I said, raising the dead is a very old topic of discussion.