I have a Cineworld pass and love films, I like to go to the cinema as much as I can because you get a better experience with the big screens and the surround sound... And there's ice cream there - I think I might like ice cream more than films so it's win-win really. The best thing about the Cineworld card is giving you a different mindset, there are a lot of films - such as Flatliners - that I likely wouldn't have seen without it. Cinema tickets are quite expensive now, and would put me off going to see a film I was unfamiliar with or had poor reviews - ironically these have been some of the better films I have seen. It does help that I am also easily pleased when it comes to the big wide world of cinema.
I'll just chuck it in here, but of course, there will be SPOILERS from about here on!
.jpg)
A film I saw about a month ago was Flatliners, which was very much a spur of the moment decision in our little group. We sat in the car, huddled around an iPhone screen to watch the trailer, everyone seemed happy enough so off we went. Now, from the trailer, we didn't get that it was a horror film and my partner Amy doesn't really like horror films. Fortunately, it wasn't too scary - it is classed as a psychological horror so it had its moments but nothing too terrifying.
The general gist of the storyline of the film is a group medical students begin to delve into investigating the afterlife. They do this by "flatlining". To do this, they hook themselves up to a load of medical equipment to record brain activity before having their heart stopped by a defibrillator and after a minute, being resuscitated. They then try to discover what happens to the brain after death from the readings taken. As they all die, one by one, they come back with enhanced brain capacity to be generally better than other people it would appear. This, of course, spurs them on to die - and come back. Towards the end of the film, it starts to catch up with them as they begin to be haunted by visions of their past and mistakes that they have made. It leads to the main character Ellen Paige unintentionally falling to her death - but from her point of view, she was pushed by the ghost of her sister who died when she was texting at the wheel. Fortunately, this gave the remaining flatliners a bit of a kick up the bum to work out how to survive!
I walked into this film with a very open mind, and also an incorrect assumption of just a science fiction rather than a psychological horror which caught me off guard. The content and acting were perfectly fine, I think the characters were cast quite well - but it also appeared to be a smaller film so introduced me to some new actors/actresses. I also was not aware that was a remake - it has got me interested to try and find a copy of the original film to compare and contrast. The original film was made in 1990, so the special effects were likely not too evolved and hopefully rely on real effects - one of my favourite things. The original Thing film is one of my favourites because of the special effects. The only gripes I can have with it were the medical aspects as I know from my own research and stuff... That the chances of resuscitation being successful are quite minimal. At the same time, I am of course basing this off of the world we live in and making the assumption that this film plays out in the same space.
I think the main thing I took away from this film was a lesson - I don't know if this lesson was an intentional one or not but there we go. For me, it was about taking responsibility for your own actions. All of the group were getting more out of life despite having something in their past that they were not proud of and haunted them. There was a bit of a void between what some of them had done from leaking pictures to covering up deaths - whilst both bad you could see arguments for one being worse than the other. From the film poster above, it reads "Cross the line. Death will follow you back" suggesting that death was what was following them. This leads me on to my main criticism is that I was left with more questions than answers.
I don't feel like I was offered an explanation as to what was actually going on. The poster is suggesting that death was the cause of a supernatural force that was behind their hauntings. The readings they took from their brains as they died showed electrical activity like the brain was causing the afterlife experience. The hallucinations they had once they got back were clearly just that - the main character caught video footage of her hallucination. After her death, and the rest of group watched they couldn't see anything suggesting it was in all in their head - or of course an experience for them to experience alone to atone for their sins. Towards the end, the main character came back to tell them to forgive themselves to let go of their past and move on. This freed them of the hallucinations. My question is, was it actually death causing the experience? Why did they gain this increased capacity? Was it all in their heads? I am an IT engineer, and the way that I just am means I like to know how things work and get answers. This left me with a lot of open-ended questions which I likely will not get an answer to as there likely won't be a sequel.
Overall, I enjoyed the film. I would give it a solid six, I enjoyed the science fiction element and the horror element. I used to watch all of the Film 4 horror seasons so this was a little homage to that. Just wish I had more answers!
I'll just chuck it in here, but of course, there will be SPOILERS from about here on!
A film I saw about a month ago was Flatliners, which was very much a spur of the moment decision in our little group. We sat in the car, huddled around an iPhone screen to watch the trailer, everyone seemed happy enough so off we went. Now, from the trailer, we didn't get that it was a horror film and my partner Amy doesn't really like horror films. Fortunately, it wasn't too scary - it is classed as a psychological horror so it had its moments but nothing too terrifying.
The general gist of the storyline of the film is a group medical students begin to delve into investigating the afterlife. They do this by "flatlining". To do this, they hook themselves up to a load of medical equipment to record brain activity before having their heart stopped by a defibrillator and after a minute, being resuscitated. They then try to discover what happens to the brain after death from the readings taken. As they all die, one by one, they come back with enhanced brain capacity to be generally better than other people it would appear. This, of course, spurs them on to die - and come back. Towards the end of the film, it starts to catch up with them as they begin to be haunted by visions of their past and mistakes that they have made. It leads to the main character Ellen Paige unintentionally falling to her death - but from her point of view, she was pushed by the ghost of her sister who died when she was texting at the wheel. Fortunately, this gave the remaining flatliners a bit of a kick up the bum to work out how to survive!
I walked into this film with a very open mind, and also an incorrect assumption of just a science fiction rather than a psychological horror which caught me off guard. The content and acting were perfectly fine, I think the characters were cast quite well - but it also appeared to be a smaller film so introduced me to some new actors/actresses. I also was not aware that was a remake - it has got me interested to try and find a copy of the original film to compare and contrast. The original film was made in 1990, so the special effects were likely not too evolved and hopefully rely on real effects - one of my favourite things. The original Thing film is one of my favourites because of the special effects. The only gripes I can have with it were the medical aspects as I know from my own research and stuff... That the chances of resuscitation being successful are quite minimal. At the same time, I am of course basing this off of the world we live in and making the assumption that this film plays out in the same space.
I think the main thing I took away from this film was a lesson - I don't know if this lesson was an intentional one or not but there we go. For me, it was about taking responsibility for your own actions. All of the group were getting more out of life despite having something in their past that they were not proud of and haunted them. There was a bit of a void between what some of them had done from leaking pictures to covering up deaths - whilst both bad you could see arguments for one being worse than the other. From the film poster above, it reads "Cross the line. Death will follow you back" suggesting that death was what was following them. This leads me on to my main criticism is that I was left with more questions than answers.
I don't feel like I was offered an explanation as to what was actually going on. The poster is suggesting that death was the cause of a supernatural force that was behind their hauntings. The readings they took from their brains as they died showed electrical activity like the brain was causing the afterlife experience. The hallucinations they had once they got back were clearly just that - the main character caught video footage of her hallucination. After her death, and the rest of group watched they couldn't see anything suggesting it was in all in their head - or of course an experience for them to experience alone to atone for their sins. Towards the end, the main character came back to tell them to forgive themselves to let go of their past and move on. This freed them of the hallucinations. My question is, was it actually death causing the experience? Why did they gain this increased capacity? Was it all in their heads? I am an IT engineer, and the way that I just am means I like to know how things work and get answers. This left me with a lot of open-ended questions which I likely will not get an answer to as there likely won't be a sequel.
Overall, I enjoyed the film. I would give it a solid six, I enjoyed the science fiction element and the horror element. I used to watch all of the Film 4 horror seasons so this was a little homage to that. Just wish I had more answers!
Comments
Post a Comment