Those of a certain age (ahem) well remember "Flatliners", the 1990 Joel Schumacher horror flick starring Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon and Billy Baldwin as medical students who temporarily kill themselves in the name of scientific discovery (spoiler: it does not work out well). Despite painful reviews, the movie earned more than its box-office share and (eventual) regard as a cult favorite.
Now, because Hollywood just can't leave any unattended intellectual property lying on the floor, "Flatliners" is heading to the screen once again as a loose sequel starring Ellen Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev and others as medical students who, again, temporarily kill themselves to supernaturally bad effect (will science never learn?)
Today, the trailer for "Flatliners" (same name, different year) has dropped and it is . . . well . . . quite loud. Directed by Niels Arden Oplev, who helmed the excellent Swedish version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" among other things, the 2017 edition seems to be amping up the scares and the effects to match what the kind of larger budgets and more bombastic tones audiences have become accustomed to these days.
What we're getting here, 27 years after the original, looks quite like something Blumhouse — the production company responsible for the "Paranormal Activity", "Purge", "Insidious" and "Sinister" franchises — might turn out with just a bit more money and prestige. The fact that Oscar nominee Page and solid all-around guy Luna have joined Dobrev and the other talented performers speaks to this (incidentally, Sutherland is on board for a cameo).
"Flatliners" — be it a sequel or a reboot or whatever — bows in theaters September 29. Watch the trailer below and, yeah, maybe turn down your volume a bit.
Shares