On This Day in Horror History ‘Flatliners’ and ‘Session 9’ Terrified for the First Time

August 10^th is a good day. It’s the wife’s birthday. This year it falls on a Thursday, which means traffic won’t be as bad as it could be. I’ll convince the lovely lady to have a few drinks with me, and then we’ll sit back and celebrate the anniversaries of Flatliners and Session 9!

Flatliners debuted in 1990, 27 years ago, and genre fans immediately flocked to the generally well-received film about treks to the “other side.” It opened in the number one slot at the box office with a solid $10 million haul, bumping the box office smash hit Ghost from the top spot. Flatliners would eventually depart the theatrical circuit with a $61 million total. Interestingly enough, the picture wasn’t the hit on home video that most would have assumed. Thanks to the forthcoming remake, however, the original film is seeing a lot of rekindled interest from old school fans and an entirely new generation to boot.

And then there’s Session 9 (celebrating its 16^th anniversary this year), one of the most frightening films ever shot. As wild as it may sound, Session 9 was never given a wide release. In fact, it barely received any theatrical push at all – at peak, the film screened on 30 screens, taking away just $378,000 in ticket sales. That’s a frightening number, however Session 9 fast became a hit on home video. Fans are in tuned to this one, which today has an extremely solid following and often earns mention along the likes of The Exorcist, Halloween and Psycho as one of the most frightening films ever made.