The question of what happens when we die is something that people have speculated on in one form or another for eons. Flatliners tells the story of five ambitious med students who decide to conduct highly risky experiments in an effort to find out if there is life after death. With the reportedly terrible remake having come out last month, I felt the desire to rewatch the original film as I remembered really liking it.
Nelson (played by Kiefer Sutherland) proposes an experiment to a select group of his classmates, David (played by Kevin Bacon), Rachel (played by Julia Roberts), Joe (played by William Baldwin), and Steckle (played by Oliver Platt). He intends to carefully kill himself to experience death and needs them to bring him back after a minute. Despite initially turning him down, each classmate shows up to help out of their own morbid curiosity. In particular, Rachel has an interest in near-death experiences and shares Nelson's interest in seeing if there is anything else out there. The experiment turns out to be a success and Nelson comes back describing what he experienced. The others decide they want to try it and start betting between one another who should be next, using the time they remain deceased as the betting chip. David argues he should go next as a control for the experiment since he is an atheist and does not expect there to be an afterlife. However, there is an unforseen side effect from the experiment. Each person who does it finds themselves haunted by the sins of their pasts, and they find themselves struggling to find a way to escape it.
The film was directed by Joel Schumacher from a script by Peter Filardi. Joel Schumacher is a director that has had his reputation sullied a bit over the years due to his two Batman films (Batman Forever and Batman & Robin), but I promise you all that with the right material he really is a great director. Flatliners is definitely a film that was within his wheelhouse. He fills the film with a nice gothic feeling in the setting, with the students committing their experiments at night in a campus building being rehabbed to ensure they are not disturbed. The production design of the film is certainly memorable and evocative as well, adding a nice visual element to Filardi's compelling story. Of course, it's not all successful. The film has the main character, Nelson, living in this huge, loft apartment in downtown Chicago. Either Nelson's family is extremely well off or Nelson is going to have one hell of a Student Loan debt when he's done. There is also an early scene in a hospital that doesn't look anything like any hospital I have ever seen, with neon and deep shadows. So, clearly it's style over realism for the film. But at least the film remains visually interesting which helps set the creepy mood for the film. Jan de Bont, who would go on to an uneven directing career of his own, imbues the film with some beautiful imagery as the Director of Photography. James Newton Howard comes up with some memorably haunting themes for the film including a opening track that starts the film off wonderfully.
The film has a great cast with Kiefer Sutherland leading the group as the driven and reckless Nelson. Julia Roberts gives a good performance as well as Rachel, who has a genuine interest in any sort of afterlife and interviews patients who have died and come back about their experiences. Kevin Bacon gives a spirited performance as David, the gung-ho cowboy doctor who plays by his own rules, something that gets him suspended from the Med School program and an ideal participant in Nelson's experiment. Oliver Platt does what he has always done best, play the quick-witted comic relief does a great job here as well at breaking the tension at the best times.
As far as films that needed to be remade go, I don't think Flatliners was one of them. The original film has a strong cast and an intriguing, original storyline. Add to that great direction from Joel Schumacher, memorable art direction and an evocative score. It may not be the scariest movie ever, but it is suitably creepy and does a good job telling the story of five med students who wanted to know if there was an afterlife so much they were willing to die for it, and did.
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