Lights Out

Starring: Teresa Palmer, Maria Bello, Alexander DiPersia
Directed By: David F. Sandberg
Written By: Eric Heisserer
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi
[rating: 3/5]
David F. Sandberg’s feature debut based off of his short of the same name, Lights Out, is an impressive enough film. It starts strongly with an eerily terrifying scene full of flickering lights and creepy mannequins as our mysterious ethereal stalker eviscerates their first victim. This creature is an enigma, it’s scary and begins to actually make you fear the dark. You feel real concern for the characters on screen as they scramble together their limited resources for fighting such an evil. Then you start to realise, you’re in the dark as well. What if this thing is real? What’s to stop it from stepping out of the shadows and eviscerating you as well? It’s a neat concept which works really well for a while, but then they went and ruined it by fleshing it out.

It’s an odd thing to complain about, a movie giving the audience too much story. I’m usually a great advocate for films giving everyone on screen a proper backstory. Unfortunately for Light’s Out the omnipresent evil’s backstory just ends up neutering it. Without giving too much away, the evil is tethered down to this particular story and these particular characters. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it does remove that scary edge that makes a lot of horror movies so great. That horrible feeling you have that this could happen to you. That if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time you would have to face this horrible thing. It’s a little less scary when you realise to be haunted by such a terror requires a rather convoluted set of circumstances. What is a fantastic idea for a horror short is fleshed out into an 80 minute story and the story it decides to tell just isn’t as scary as this premise deserves.

What does work, however, works really well. Sandberg is an impressively competent horror director for a first-timer and a lot of the scares come naturally from a combination of atmosphere and jump-scares. The best thing about this premise is that the jump scares don’t feel forced. Something jumping out of the shadows is literally the point of the film. While the story involving the threat can get muddled and convoluted, the fore-story of a divided and broken family trying to pick up the pieces is actually quite sweet. In particular, Teresa Palmer’s Rebecca’s character arc is quite refreshing as we see a young woman battling her demons thrust back into the family she’s been avoiding all these years. Palmer gives a fantastic performance here, tapping into something raw and powerful. I’d also like to draw attention to the fact that she also has your usual, ‘Horror movie leading lady’ giant eyes. You’ve got to have those big eyes to portray the fear, apparently.

While it doesn’t quite realise its potential, Lights Out still provides a good number of scares that should keep you on the edge of your cinema seat. If you’re particularly jumpy, it might even make you think twice before turning off your lights the next time you’re confronted with that switch. Don’t forget to keep a flashlight handy.