Frankenstein Meets Nightmare On Elm Street In This Forgotten Horror That's Streaming For Free

Published Aug 21, 2026, 12:36 PM EDT Adrienne Tyler is a movies & TV features writer, with a focus on horror. She has written for Netflix, FanSided, & more. She was a regular guest on the Netfreaks podcast and was a YouTuber at some point. Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. One of the best horror movies of the 1990s is now streaming for free, and it’s reminiscent of the best elements of Frankenstein and A Nightmare on Elm Street. The 1990s were a key decade in horror, seeing renewed interest in the genre in large part thanks to Wes Craven’s Scream, and thus bringing some of the best horror movies of all time. However, the horror genre was already making great movies in the 1990s before Scream took over. The early 1990s saw the release of great horror movies like The Silence of the Lambs, Misery, Jacob’s Ladder, and Candyman, all of them covering different types of horror and succeeding at it. However, this also led to other great horror movies becoming forgotten, though some of them have built a loyal following through the years. Such is the case for Joel Schumacher’s Flatliners, a sci-fi psychological horror movie released in 1990. Flatliners wasn’t well received during its initial release, with critics praising its cast, visuals, and tone, but pointing out its story as a weakness. Flatliners grossed $61.5 million against a budget of $26 million, but despite these initial setbacks, Flatliners is now regarded as one of the best and most underrated movies of the 1990s – and, luckily, it’s now available to stream for free. Flatliners Is Now Streaming On Tubi Flatliners introduces viewers to Nelson Wright (Kiefer Sutherland), Rachel Manus (Julia Roberts), Joe Hurley (William Baldwin), David Labraccio (Kevin Bacon), and Randy Steckle (Oliver Platt), all of them medical students. Nelson recruits his friends to help him with an experiment through which he hopes to find what lies beyond death. For that, he flatlines for one minute, and his friends are instructed to resuscitate him. After others go through it as well, they all have the same experience: they relive traumatic parts of their past and moments that cause them great guilt. Shortly after, they start having hallucinations related to those visions, but some of them need to find answers to them. Flatliners has a unique concept that addresses the very common and valid question of whether there’s anything after death, while also exploring themes like trauma, grief, and guilt. Flatliners is a must-watch for horror fans and those into movies from the 1990s, as it definitely carries a heavy nostalgia factor with its visual style, the characters’ clothes and hairstyles, and its cast (more on that in a bit). Flatliners is now available for everyone to watch as it has found a home on Tubi, the free streaming platform with a wide variety of TV shows and movies across different genres and decades. How Flatliners Blends Frankenstein, Nightmare On Elm Street & More Horror Inspirations Flatliners is an original story, but it draws heavy inspiration from other horror works and themes, most notably Frankenstein and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the most influential sci-fi and horror works in literature, being the inspiration for countless stories across different media for centuries. Flatliners is clearly one of them, as Nelson, just like Victor Frankenstein, decided to play God through clandestine experiments. In both cases, the experiments backfired quite badly, putting their lives at risk and playing with their sanity, while also deeply affecting those closest to them. Victor Frankenstein and Nelson were brilliant scientific minds, but the problem was that their ambition got the best of them. Flatliners is also reminiscent of Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, in which an evil entity, the now-classic villain Freddy Krueger, is brought back through nightmares and even crosses into the real world. Instead of doing so through sleep and nightmares, Flatliners brings back a dark force rooted in trauma and guilt through inducing death. This force takes the shape of people that Nelson and company either wronged or they were wronged by, in a way similar to Krueger taking any form that will scare his victims. Flatliners Has A Stacked Cast As mentioned above, one of the biggest strengths of Flatliners is its cast, with some notable names from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. By the time Flatliners was released, Kiefer Sutherland was already a well-known name in the horror genre, all thanks to Schumacher. Sutherland played villain David Powers in Schumacher’s 1987 horror classic The Lost Boys, which, along with Sutherland’s performances in Stand by Me and Young Guns, made him one of the biggest stars of the 1980s. Julia Roberts had her big break in the 1980s with Mystic Pizza, followed by Steel Magnolias, and just a couple of months before the release of Flatliners, she became rom-com royalty thanks to Pretty Woman. Kevin Bacon was one of the biggest stars of the 1980s thanks to Friday the 13th and Footloose, and his popularity continued in early 1990 with Tremors. Oliver Platt’s career was only getting started when he starred in Flatliners, after which he had roles in movies like Beethoven, Indecent Proposal, The Impostors, Bicentennial Man, and TV shows like The West Wing, The Big C, Chicago P.D., Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and The Bear. William Baldwin is best known for his roles in movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and TV shows like Parenthood, Gossip Girl, Hot in Cleveland, and South Wind. Their different styles combined to make Flatliners one of the best movies of the 1990s with the best casts, as well as make their characters relatable. Flatliners Eventually Got A Sequel/Remake Flatliners has a good ending that gives closure to the stories of its main characters, but that didn’t stop Hollywood from picking it up for a continuation many years later. In 2017, a Flatliners follow-up was released, directed by Niels Arden Oplev and starring Elliot Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev, James Norton, and Kiersey Clemons. Although 2017’s Flatliners follows the same basic premise as Schumacher’s movie, it made notable changes that ruined the core message. Kiefer Sutherland played Dr. Barry Wolfson, who, in a deleted scene, is revealed to be Nelson under a new identity. The Flatliners sequel/remake was a critical failure, and grossed $45.2 million against a budget of $19 million. Unlike its predecessor, 2017’s Flatliners hasn’t gotten better with time, nor has it built an audience, and isn't really recognized as part of the world of Schumacher’s movie. The original Flatliners is now a classic, and its arrival on Tubi can further expand its audience. Release Date August 10, 1990 Runtime 115 Minutes Director Joel Schumacher Writers Peter Filardi Cast Kiefer Sutherland Nelson Wright