I think the creators were going for something cerebral but overshot. Obviously, if you made it through high school Language Arts, you can recognize Dante, so that sets the stage for a moderately educated audience. There's much confusion and the ending doesn't solve anything. I'm starting to think that was intentional. I think they decided to leave it to the audience to discuss and dissect over cigars and drinks. But, it misses the mark to make it satisfying to the masses.
While Virgil keeps assuring Sam he is NOT dead, the ending kind of leaves you with that impression. While some reviewers suggest maybe MAYBE after the camera clicks off, he comes to, that's really pushing it to forsee a scene not there. But, "going up," "going into the light," the whole good v. Evil theme throughout, and his clear flatline on the monitor lead to the conclusion that he's dead. I mean, I expected the little girl to move or something and her parents to get excited, but they just sat crying. Now, Virgil did urge him to hurry, so maybe he needed to get to the roof before his body died? But, when LILLITH said that Monica and the cop had chosen, by going downstairs, I guess, they were clearly pronounced dead. So, it led you to think down = dead, up = life. But if that were the case, why do you need "the light" and the flatline? And why would death = evil and life = good? I mean, yeah, death sucks, but I wouldn't equate dying to evil. I feel like they needed to make a choice here: is this about good verses evil or life verses death, because making it both makes it convoluted.
One reviewer wrote that if you die in "the game", you die in real life, but that wasn't my understanding. I'm pretty sure Virgil said if you die, you come back but more confused and lashing out at everyone, which explains the old coma patient and Carter. If you die in there meant you died in real life, then Carter would have been done after the cop shot him in the head.
The other thing that wouldn't make sense if going to the roof into the light meant dying is how the main character Sam is learning and bettering himself along the way. What would be the point in him learning to think about others if he were just going to die at the end? That part makes you think he's going to come back to his life a new man and ready to focus on his wife and baby and be a good husband and father.
Bottom line: if they'd just lost "the light" and let you hear a heart monitor register life during the credits, I think a lot of people would have been happier and given better reviews.