Don't expect to learn too much about life after death from this horror-ish story of a quintet of medical students who take it in turns to stay 'dead' for as long as possible.

Despite the stylish presentation and starry cast, the result is a pile of old cobblers that will remind old-time film buffs and late horror show fans of some of those doomed medical ventures of the black and white Forties when zombies walked.

Contrary to the film's publicity about the visions of briefly-dead people brought back to life, what happens to our heroes here is that they are haunted by images from the past, which return in the present.

Kiefer Sutherland keeps getting beaten up by a malevolent child, Julia Roberts sees the ghost of her father who shot himself, William Baldwin is pursued by visions of the girls he videoed while making love to them, Kevin Bacon is taunted by the nine-year-old girl he tormented at school.

Despite good performances from the cast, it gets more preposterous by the reel.