Director: Niels Arden Oplev

Writers: Peter Filardi, Ben Ripley

Cast: Ellen Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev, James Norton, Kiersey Clemons, Kiefer Sutherland 

​There’s a plethora of puns already out there about this remake (not sequel, despite Kiefer Sutherland returning, albeit as a different character) of the 1990 movie Flatliners. “Dead on Arrival”, “flatlined” and “on life support” can be used to describe it, but we can just convey our thoughts about it with a simple sigh. It does make you wonder though, did the film makers deliberately make a bad film for the sake of a few good puns? 

Both the story of Flatliners, and the back story of its making, are about bringing back something from the dead. However, while Ellen Page’s character inexplicably comes back from the afterlife with an epiphany, director Niels Arden Oplev instead attempts to reanimate a cold corpse of a premise and tries to teach it how to be a film. The results are somewhat akin to a Frankenstein’s monster amalgam of genre and tone, shambling around, desperately trying to find its purpose in a world where nobody wanted or needed it. 

It’s this genre mashing which is Flatliners’ problem. It starts off like an episode of Dougie Houser, with medical students trying to get by in their studies and playing pranks on each other – one of which crossed so many ethical and medical boundaries, it belongs more comfortably in this year’s Baywatch. 

Suddenly, Ellen Page has selected her group of friends (this is a strong word, as there’s no chemistry within the group) and they’re undergoing the flatlining experiments. From this point on, the movie switches in tone from a psychological thriller to jump-scare horror, back to medical drama and, near the end, family drama! This complete lack of adherence to any one genre kills any chance we have of being invested in the film. While the difficulties of writing a screenplay based on an older concept must be respected, it comes across as though a dozen writers wrote entirely different movies to each other and tried in vain to blend them all together.  

The characters have some serious problems too. Some of them have committed unforgivable acts which will have you wondering whether they deserve the redemption the writers are forcing them to attain. Couple this with poor exposition and almost non existent character development (in fact, they frequently swap and change personalities to suit the script) and we have a very bland, unrelatable and unlikeable group. 

In a way, it’s a shame that Flatliners falls flat, as an updated, well directed remake may have been an unexpected hit, as the premise is actually quite interesting on paper. However, we’re given a dull and unnecessary remake, with no addition to the set up of the original.

-S

Verdict: Even though nobody asked for a remake of Flatliners, this iteration could have added something new. Unfortunately, Flatliners is an incredibly dull and messy film, which will do little to persuade you to stay awake in the cinema. 

2/10