Flatliners: Original vs Remake

Remakes of films are rarely wanted or needed, and Flatliners (Niels Arden Oplev, 2017) is no exception. The story is fundamentally the same as Joel Schumacher’s Flatliners (1990), with most of the changes made to the characters and visual style of the film. The basic plot of both films follows a group of medical students as they attempt to discover what lies beyond death by stopping their hearts for just long enough to see the afterlife. This dangerous experiment results in the students being haunted by sins from their past that not only torment their minds but can also cause them physical suffering. While Schumacher’s version is camp, often surreal, and somewhat of a cult classic, Oplev’s remake attempts to ground the film in reality. While this change seems like it could be a good idea – making the film more realistic and scientifically accurate, and possibly more accessible – it is ultimately what causes the film’s failure.

 

In Schumacher’s Flatliners, the hospital hallways are in almost complete darkness except for the glowing red doorways and a single window. There are large religious statues everywhere. Smoke and wind appear for seemingly no reason. The students conduct their experiments in what appears to be an abandoned church. Kevin Bacon abseils down the side of a college building. And none of this comes with any explanation. Everything about the original film is over the top and unbelievable, but that is exactly what allows for the absurdity of the plot. Coming back to life unscathed after lying dead for over ten minutes is completely unrealistic, so why not do it in an abandoned church on Halloween night during a full moon?

 

Oplev’s remake is clean and straightforward in its locations, set design, and cinematography. It pushes the outrageous experiments back into the realm of medical possibility, but the more realistic and scientifically accurate the film attempts to be, the more obvious the mistakes and inaccuracies appear. While reducing the amount of time the characters flatline might make the film more realistic, it also lowers the stakes considerably, and still isn’t scientifically possible.The film spends so much time justifying every action the characters make in an attempt to escape the nonsensical nature of the 1990 film that there is no room for the character growth or relationship development that is found in the original version.

 

Just as the remake has more generic characters and locations compared to the original, the horror aspect of the film is diminished by its use of clichéd jump scares. The original film leans more towards psychological horror, as after their near-death experiences, the characters are forced to suffer similar pain to that which they inflicted in the first place, meaning they learn from their mistakes. In the remake, however, the jump scares rarely relate to the characters’ sins, serving instead as a lazy way to scare the audience rather than to develop the characters. The original film does also have occasional shock moments, but these are rare and often followed by a genuine moment of fear for the characters, rather than a big build-up with no real payoff.

 

The remake does, on the surface at least, improve on the gender imbalance found in the original, with Rachel (Julia Roberts) being the only woman in the group of original flatliners. Although she is the only woman, Rachel doesn’t exist only in relation to the male characters, as is common for lone females on screen, and she is as integral to the plot as the men. However, Rachel does act as a romantic interest for both Nelson (Kiefer Sutherland) and David (Kevin Bacon), and her character growth is also centred around a male character, her deceased father. While Roberts delivers a strong yet reserved performance that allows Rachel to stand out in the film, she still falls victim to the Smurfette principle. The 2017 version has three women in main roles, with Ellen Page taking over as the main character from Sutherland. This seems to solve the ‘lone female character’ problem from the original film, but after a lot of flirting and multiple unnecessary sex scenes, it begins to feel as though the remake only has more female characters to make it possible match everyone up in heterosexual relationships.

 

The original film has interesting relationship conflicts and better character development than the remake, in which the characters all quickly fall into stereotypes and don’t develop any further throughout the film. The change that hurts the remake the most, though, is how selfish the characters are. The original film is, at its core, about forgiveness and atonement. The students realise that to stop being haunted by their past sins, they must seek forgiveness from those they have wronged. This leads to some heartfelt scenes of them confronting their pasts, recognising their mistakes, and growing from this experience. In the remake however, these scenes are rushed through, and the characters don’t appear to actually feel sorry at all. When it’s time for them to come to terms with their past, it seems as though they’re doing it purely to stop the hauntings, rather than actually learning from their mistakes and developing as people.

While its eccentric nature can take a while to get used to, the original Flatliners has heart. It is a Gothic, surreal, fantasy film with interesting characters and conflicts, and when these elements are taken away in the remake, we’re left with a medical drama where one-dimensional characters are haunted by horror movie clichés. Ultimately, Oplev’s remake removes everything that made the original film enjoyable to watch.

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