Saw the 1990s version of Flatliners. It was very interesting. It follows five medical students who hatch a plan to induce death for a brief period before resuscitating themselves to bring back knowledge of the hereafter. It's a strange combination of gaudy and fascinating. It's framed as a sort of horror/drama film. The medical school where they do their experiments is some kind of converted mansion/cathedral/weeping angel statue warehouse. It's got kind of a Hellraiser or Suspiria style of gothic, sumptuous horror.
There's many scenes that are outright ridiculous. There's a moment where one of the characters is sitting in a car in an alleyway and slowly the lighting shifts, lighting up fearsome oni masks spray-painted on the walls. Look out! There is a skull just over his shoulder! But there are also many scenes that are surprisingly effective at being creepy. As the graffiti is lit up, a dog slithers forward, apparently crawling despite broken legs. It's very worrying. Similarly, as excitement about the near-death experiments mounts in the group, they begin ghoulishly bidding against each other, bargaining minutes spent in brain-death before being resuscitated, gambling with the decay of their own brains. It's a great portrait of ambition run to crass recklessness; so ghoulish, so gross!
The film is interesting. It's grappling with death and life and these very important, profound things. I was kind of glad that it went the horror route, but the snob in me was disappointed. Anyone can make death be scary. The animal in us will always want to live, but we know we will have to die. Help me to grapple with that, Hollywood!
I was honestly in the mood for a movie like this though: dumb enough to be sensational, smart enough to be tasteful. There's other things to enjoy: one of the characters is symbolically linked to salvation. The film cleverly makes him an atheist. The film is set around Halloween which affords many opportunities for morbid visuals.
This was not a great film, but it was a good film and I enjoyed it a lot. It both rose to and overcame its premise.
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