Story-Driven | Home of Screenwriter Paul Taegel

After the credits rolled on the 2017 Flatliners remake, Laura broke the silence with, “Uhhh.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “That was pretty stupid.” Then added, “I remember the original being such a banger.”

“Me too… But was it?”

“You think it won’t hold up?” We’d recently revisited The Goonies, and dang, it didn’t hold up.

“Wanna find out?” she asked.

Which is how Laura and I stayed up until 3am watching another Flatliners. I must confess, it wasn’t as good as I remembered.

It was better.

The foundational difference between the 1990 Flatliners (d. Joel Schumacher | w. Peter Filardi) and its half-assed 2017 clone seems to be that the original is a film made by a director who understands — and whose creative leads understand — what the film is about.

Every creative choice, from the script to the acting, setting, props, lighting, and art direction — expresses the film’s spine. It’s right there on the poster: “Some lines should not be crossed.” (As a working spine, it could also be expressed as a question: What happens when five medical students cross a line that shouldn’t be crossed?)

Watch the 1990 film and notice the use of thresholds and boundaries, physical and metaphorical, in the set design, performances, staging, etc. Flatliners is a masterpiece of unified storytelling.

However, I’m not sure I’d have been so attuned to just how skillfully Joel Schumacher helmed the original had I not first watched the 2017 cockup.

If a crash course in narrative storytelling is your idea of a bang-up evening, try watching both Flatliners back to back. Or choose another remake/original double bill. Regardless, I’d love to hear how it went in the comments down below.