Flatliners (1990)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.4/10   

Director:

Joel Schumacher

Guionista (WGA):

Peter Filardi (written by)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

10 agosto 1990 (USA)

Género:

Horror | Suspenso | Ciencia-Ficción

Frase comercial:

Some lines shouldn't be crossed.

Plot:

Medical students bring themselves near death; their experiment begins to go awry.

Plot Keywords:

Death | Medical | Medical Student | Afterlife | Near Death Experience

Premios:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

A vaguely original horror idea

Reparto

Kiefer Sutherland	...	Nelson
Julia Roberts	...	Dr. Rachel Mannus
Kevin Bacon	...	David Labraccio
William Baldwin	...	Dr. Joe Hurley
Oliver Platt	...	Randy Steckle
Kimberly Scott	...	Winnie Hicks
Joshua Rudoy	...	Billy Mahoney
Benjamin Mouton	...	Rachel's Father
Aeryk Egan	...	Young Nelson
Kesha Reed	...	Young Winnie
Hope Davis	...	Anne Coldren
Jim Ortlieb	...	Uncle Dave
John Duda	...	Young David (as John Joseph Duda)
Megan Stewart	...	Playground Kid
Tressa Thomas	...	Playground Kid

También conocida como:

Línea mortal (Argentina) (Spain) [es]

Duración:

115 min | Finland:110 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Color

Relación de Aspecto:

2.20 : 1

Sonido:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | CDS (digital 35 mm prints) | Dolby (analog 35 mm prints)

Clasificación:

West Germany:16 | Iceland:14 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) (TV rating) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia) | Brazil:16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #30218)

Locaciones de Filmación:

Bensenville, Illinois, USA

Compañía:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivialidades:

Hope Davis's film debut.

Errores:

Errores que Revelan: In the bathroom scene with Rachel and her father, the walls can be seen sliding back in order to make the set bigger for the 360 degree camera sweep.

Citas:

David Labraccio: He said... he said it wasn't such a good day to die.
Nelson Wright: Thank you.

Conexiones de Película:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Jeff Goldblum/Aerosmith (#19.3)" (1993)

Banda de Sonido:

THE CLAPPING SONG

A vaguely original horror idea

The basic premise of Flatliners is fairly simple. Several medical students put themselves at the point of death in order to find out exactly what the brain does during the fact. It sounds like something a mob of bored students would do for a joke, but it forms the basis of some very creepy substories. In today's world, where Hollywood has to mine foreign markets for the ideas to make a horror film, Flatliners is one of those rare gems that show Hollywood can make something different when it tries hard enough.

What separates Flatliners from a lot of films based on this premise that would come out today is that it does not stoop to being condescending or arrogant. Flatliners recognises that people go to films to be entertained, not moralised to. In this kind of supernatural thriller, the difference this restraint makes is really incredible. What's even more incredible is that Julia Roberts appears without being annoying or demonstrating that she can only play Julia Roberts. The theory of obscurity, that performing artists do their best work with the smallest audience, is in force here.

The subplots concerning what the characters find during their loss of pretty much everything that makes them alive, and how it comes back to intrude on their present time, are done surprisingly well. The moments when William Baldwin's character finds his personal videotape collection coming back to haunt him are especially intriguing. That William Baldwin seems so perfectly cast in the role says a lot either about the script or the direction. I am not sure which.

Kiefer Sutherland, on the other hand, really shines as the lead. One really feels for him as the mystery of what past experience is intruding on the present and why unfolds. As Kevin Bacon's character goes to find an old school pier whose life he made hell and tell her how sorry he is, it becomes clearer what the film is about. We can try to change the past as much as we like, but it's what we do with the present that matters most.

Another good aspect of Flatliners is how it achieves an atmosphere without the use of expensive, elaborate visual effects. Quite unusually for what is essentially a horror film, Flatliners did not expend its budget in places where it did not need to. Much of what we see during the more surreal sequences is a case of professional pretending, simple trick photography, or stock footage. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.

If there is a problem with the film, it's that it feels about ten minutes too short. The ending seems more perfunctory than conclusive, as if someone in the studio asked the director to wrap the film up so they can bring it out at a certain market time. Of course, many films have been left with sore spots for this very reason, so Flatliners shouldn't really need to be any different. The hundred and fifteen minutes we do get is highly satisfactory, though not overly brilliant.

I gave Flatliners a seven out of ten. It works well as a date flick or a kind of late-night popcorn film. That aside, it makes a good reminder that low-budget horror shows weren't always sad pieces of garbage.