Flatliners (1990)

Look out! There's a train coming!

Flatliners (1990): written by Peter Filardi; directed by Joel Schumacher; starring Kiefer Sutherland (Nelson), Julia Roberts (Rachel), Kevin Bacon (David), William Baldwin (Joe), and Oliver Platt (Steckle): I guess if you're going to kill yourself and then be revived so as to probe the mysteries of what lies beyond death, you might as well do so in a run-down, moodily lighted church while working at a hospital that looks like the offspring of a Renaissance art gallery, a brothel, and something Poe barfed up after doing too many shrooms.

You could use Flatliners to teach... the 1980's! Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, and Kevin Bacon BRING THE HAIR. So much hair. Such odd apartments. Kevin Bacon seems to live in an abandoned warehouse. William Baldwin seems to live inside a clock tower. Kiefer Sutherland seems to live in a set of rooms just vacated by Dave Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey prior to his transformation into the Star Child.

Joel Schumacher cues you as to supernatural shenanigans with colourful lighting. And what supernatural shenanigans! I enjoyed watching Kiefer Sutherland repeatedly pummelled by the ghost of a ten-year-old boy. Or is it a ghost? Time will tell!

Kiefer Sutherland has this outfit when we first see him... I won't spoil it. But it should go in the Smithsonian as an awesome example of late-80's chic. And Kevin Bacon rappels down from his apartment window at one point because this is what people did back then. Such, such were the joys! Recommended because it was terrible but fun.