Keeping in the spirit of Halloween -like I had mentioned before, I love this month- this DVD Flashback is honoring one of Joel Schumacher’s better movies Flatliners. Flatliners is a sci-fi thriller which is set around the Halloween time of year. Five med school students embark on a research project straight to the other side, attempting to learn more about what happens to us when we die.
There are many familiar faces in the young cast. Kiefer Sutherland when he was cool -not that he isn’t cool now-, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon -check out his hair in this one-, William Baldwin -you don’t even need to like the Baldwin’s for this-, and the always comical Oliver Platt. This is one of the most impressive young groups since The Lost Boys and Young Guns -no coincidence that Kiefer is in all of these-. Schumacher can be hit or miss, but Flatlines has always been one of my favorites.
Nelson (Sutherland) is a bright young medical student who believes he has come up with a process which will allow him to experiment with death. All in the name of science of course, Nelson recruits the highest ranking students in the school to assist him with his mortality research. David Labraccio (Bacon) is the most talented of the students; his skills are required to resuscitate Nelson once he has flatlined. Joe (Baldwin) doesn’t really do anything, but he does own a video camera, which he uses to tape his last hoorays of sexual encounters before he marries. Rachel Mannus (Roberts) is the oh so sexy anesthesiologist and finally we have the medical genius of the crew Randall Steckle (Platt) who is Joe’s sidekick for arguments sake, but is also the voice of reason of the group.
The young medical pioneers begin their dance with death, each one put under to explore the other side and bring back the answers of death – and life. Soon after the first subject is successful, he begins to notice strange occurrences which manifest and hunt him, almost as nightmares while he is awake. One by one each member of this etwa`n experiences similar strange phenomenon, which leads to distrust among the team. Finally they have to come together to not only save one of their own, but to find out how to make the spirits from the other side go back.
For this Holiday, Flatliners is truly a great movie. Growing up I was always the type of student who did his homework and loved to research, so these characters where very cool in my book. Even as a graduate student at RIT, I would look to the attitudes of these obsessed people trying to motivate myself for the research I had to accomplish.
I highly recommend “Flatliners”, not only for a movie for Halloween but a movie for anytime. It’s an eye catcher on any DVD shelf.
“Today is a good day to die.” ~Kiefer Sutherland
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