Flatliners (2017) movie review

Flatliners, is a remake of the 1990 classic sci-fi horror film of the same name. This version was released in 2017 and stars Ellen Page, Kiersey Clemons, Nina Dobrev, Diego Luna, and James Norton as five med school doctors who conduct experiments to learn about the after-life. The film is about Courtney Holmes (Ellen Page) who is a med student dr who is curious about the afterlife and what happens after we die. After the death of her sister in an car accident caused by her looking at her phone, she is wracked with guilt of her sister's death. She is curious about the similar stories people who have died and been resuscitated seem to share about their experience. She recruits fellow student doctor Sophia (Kiersey Clemons), and Jamie (James Norton) to help her with her experiment, though she doesn't tell them what she wants them for until they are there. She wants them to stop her heart for a few minutes and then resuscitate her, all the while scanners would read her brain activity. Reluctantly they help her, and Sophia texts Ray (Diego Luna) to help bring Courtney back to life when they are unable to successfully do accomplish it, Marlo (Nina Dobrev) also joins the group . After the experience she seems to remember things that shouldn't be possible for her to remember, and her brain starts working at a much higher level of functioning, also while under she has incredible visions. They find that different primitive parts of the brain are activated after death. However there is also a negative side effect, as she starts seeing and hearing terrifying images, the hauntings are all tied to her sister and her death which was her fault. The other characters one by one also flatline, and have their own visions and are also haunted by their past guilt. These hauntings is where the horror aspect of the movie kick in, and they are really effective in the mood that it helps to establish. Ray is the only one of the doctors who doesn't flatline, and he remains as the voice of reason for the group and helps them to find the answer to their hauntings, but not in time before one of the group dies, which puts the rest of the group in risk of being found out. The critics really shit on this movie, giving it mostly negative reviews. The problem I think, and the reason for that, is because they went into it with their minds very stuck on the original film, not giving it a chance to stand up on its own merits. Did a remake of such a great movie need to exist, well no, nor do most remakes. One thing though that makes this one a bit better than the original is the just the technology that exists today that didn't when the original was made, which help to make the visions the characters see more vivid and real, and simply able to do things that they couldn't in 1990, same thing with some of the other effects in the movie. So to separate it from the original, and to look at it as its own piece, the movie actually works really well. I watched it with my roommate who has never seen the original, nor have I seen the original in over 20 years, so we went into this with the movie having to stand for itself and not have vivid memories of the original to compare it to. The movie works, the cast is great, they play their parts wonderfully, and their characters are well developed and realistic. The visual effects, are beautifully done, and even the CG effects look good. The sets are also beautifully done and Quebec as the backdrop for the film was a beautiful choice (although for some reason I feel like Boston would have been a perfect setting for the film). I actually really like this movie a lot, it has a nice dark feel to it, and it blends drama, horror, and sci-fi together brilliantly, taking the audience though a whole range of emotions, having you laughing, crying, and feeling terror all the appropriate places. The movie was directed by the same talented director that gave us Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Niels Arden Oplev. I also like that Kiefer Sutherland, who was one of the stars in the original plays the dr who is the lead instructor of the med students. Originally it was said that Sutherland would reprise his role from the original movie and that this would be a sequel rather than a remake, and though it seems that idea was scrapped, as he ended up playing a dr with a different name, there is still a very brief and subtle allusion to the original movie when Courtney is doing a websearch about the afterlife, we see for a few seconds a web article with a heading mentioning a study done about what happens to our brains after we die, which I feel was a few second acknowledgement that the original movie did in fact happen. If that is in fact intentional and true, then it is unfair for critics to criticize the film based on the original, as it may be in fact a sequel where five students decide to do the same experiment (which is believable, as that is often the case, especially in science). I don't know view it however you wish, sequel or remake, but just give the movie a chance to stand up for itself rather than holding it to the expectation that you might have based on the original movie. Would I recommend this movie? Yes, absolutely, matter of fact I recommended it to my roommate today, and she ended up really liking it. I really think that this is a very decent movie, and is a very well done sci-fi horror film.