Flat Line Fever

Ms. Spenser saw the previews for Flatliners (2017) and asked me to queue it up. I remember seeing the original 1990 movie in theaters, but I can't remember much. Anyway, remake was terrible and a lot of fun.

It has a great little cast, including Ellen Page and Diego Luna, of medical interns. Page, who is haunted by the death of her little sister, which she caused - drove off a bridge in what looked to me to be an homage to Carnival of Souls. She has found an unused CAT scanner and some resuscitation equipment, and gets some of her fellow students to kill her. And, of course, bring her back to life.

This works fine - Diego Luna doesn't agree to this project, but makes sure her resurrection goes as planned. Page comes back to life full of energy and mysteriously possessing all knowledge of medicine. This convinces insecure intern Kiersey Clemons to die. Her poor mother forced her into med school to make something of herself, and she's afraid of failing. But dying gives her a new lease on life. Pretty soon, everyone but Luna has flatlined.

But along with the thrill and the knowledge, everyone begins to have visions of the their worst guilt. Page's visions of her sister kill her, or at least cause her to commit suicide. But Clemons is able to find the girl she had wronged, apologize, and be forgiven - her visions stop. But what if you were guilty over someone who is dead, and can't forgive you?

Here comes the worst thing of all: It turns out that you don't need to be forgiven - you have to forgive yourself. Oh, really. An entitled, privileged, over-educated embryonic doctor just has to forgive herself. Whoopedy-doo.

To sum up:

• Cast good
• Acting bad
• Not very scary
• Silly plot resolution

Yet, we enjoyed it a lot. Maybe because it wasn't that disturbing, and the actors were all very CW TV pretty.

In conclusion. Kiefer Sutherland, who had the Diego Luna role in the original, has a small role here, but is not a flatliner.