‘Flatliners’ Remake Opens to Horrendous Reviews

Making a reboot of a well-known horror film comes with some risks, but in the case of John Carpenter’s The Thing or David Cronenberg’s The Fly, the remake can end up surpassing the original. Based on early reactions to this weekend’s remake of Flatliners, the Joel Schumacher-directed 1990 film, this property should have been labeled “do not resuscitate.”

The remake, which currently sits at 0% on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, has suffered many delays in release, which typically doesn’t bode well for a film. Another bad omen is that the film wasn’t screened for critics ahead of its release, something exceptionally rare. Often, even if a film is screened ahead of time, embargoes on reviews won’t lift until days before the film’s release, but this Flatliners update wasn’t be seen by any critics until it opened wide in theaters.

The original film starred Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland and Kevin Bacon, who were all some of the most sought-after talents in the late ’80s. Their characters play medical students who begin to experiment with intentionally killing themselves, only for their counterparts to bring them back to life through their medical knowledge. In addition to getting a thrilling rush, they also hoped to gain knowledge about the “other side.”

The new Flatliners is meant to be a combination reboot/sequel, following a similar plotline with some slight tweaks, and stars Ellen Page and Diego Luna.

The film takes the premise but descends into a typical Hollywood film about the supernatural, with The Hollywood Reporter saying of the remake, “It also allows the viewer’s increasingly idle mind to wonder why, nearly three decades later, the plot’s semi-intriguing premise couldn’t be put to less daffy use.”

Considering the original film isn’t necessarily lauded as a “classic,” the subject matter seems like it was deserving of an update, with IndieWire claiming the remake squandered that opportunity. “This lifeless new version hits all the same beats as the original, but does so without a speck of the baroque style that made it such a fun thing to rent on a Friday night,” reads IndieWire‘s review.

One of the original film’s strengths is its charming cast, which this remake doesn’t come close to capturing.

The A.V. Club notes, “None of the actors succeeds in making any of this nonsense credible, or even in establishing much of a personality.”

With the record-breaking IT still in theaters, we think most horror fans will be opting to see that film again this weekend instead of this remake.