Niels Arden Oplev directs Ellen Page, Diego Luna and Nina Dobrev in this remake of the 1990 psychological thriller about med students experimenting with near death experiences. 

I have a massive soft spot for the original Flatliners. A teen friendly Jacob’s Ladder with amazing MTV gothic imagery, reuniting The Lost Boys dream team of Kiefer Sutherland and Joel Schumacher. It was a gateway horror film for me and holds up far better than its contemporary reputation suggests. This will never be thought of in the same way in 25 years time. Sutherland returns, maybe as the same character under a new name, only to have little effect on the precedings. The death sequences and fears that they bring back are uninspired. There’s a nice shock at the one hour mark but this is squandered by a trite resolution where characters who don’t deserve quite such an easy happy ending seemingly walk away scott free. With the exception of the ever likeable Page and Luna playing the oldest med students ever, there is very little to recommend this dull, flattened out retread.

3