“Darkness imprisoning me, all that I see, absolute horror…” Metallica “One”
Directed by: David F. Sandberg
Written by: Eric Heisserer, David F. Sandberg
Cast: Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Maria Bello
Swift shot: I can always tell when a horror movie is good when people around me start to make nervous jokes to mask their obvious fear. Towards the end of Lights Out, I heard quite a few people donning those masks of false courage. While I wasn’t frightened watching the film, I was entertained by the mystery of discovering who Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey) was and why she does what she does. So, as a terrifying horror film, you may not get what you want, but I loved the twisted tale, and I felt something genuine for all of the characters. You just might find yourself taking a closer look at those shadows that seemingly dance in the dark and vanish right when you turn your head. I mean, are you ever truly alone?
Lights Out is a full length feature film based on a short, very viral film by Swedish Director David F. Sandberg. It is produced by the new legacy of horror, James Wan (Conjuring, Saw) and is worthy of his commendable growing catalog.
Rebecca (Palmer) is a young woman with serious daddy issues, she was abandoned by her father when she was only ten years old, and the fracture devastated her mother, Sophie (Bello). And as soon as Rebecca was old enough to leave home, she too abandoned her broken mother. Sophie isn’t completely helpless though, she’s even managed to start a new life with a new husband, Paul (Billy Burke) and they have a son together, Martin (Bateman).
There are some family secrets that should stay beneath the surface, and Sophie’s tenuous grasp on reality is the primary reason Rebecca never drops in on her mom. It’s also a large part of why she won’t even let her beau, Bret (Alexander DiPersia) leave anything in her tiny apartment above a tattoo parlor. Bret is a heck of a guy though and understands there must be something deep that is holding Rebecca back from committing to their relationship.
He’ll find out . . . in the dark.
Martin has recently discovered that his mom isn’t really taking her meds, and a new tragedy befalls the family that once again leaves Sophie abandoned. As Martin tries to help his mother with her mental illness, it finally becomes too much for the kid and he reaches out to his older, half sister for just the chance to sleep at her place a few nights. He just needs sleep. Rebecca is not too keen on letting Martin stay there, at first, but she soon realizes that Martin needs her. And they both realize they need to save their mother from this dark sickness that is crippling her from moving on with her life.
That’s all the setup you need without giving anything away, as the film progresses, more clues about Diana are revealed which lead to a thrilling conclusion that will also have you wondering what else might be lurking in those dark spaces.
I appreciated all the elements of Lights Out, with spectacular lighting and cinematography, art design with little details throughout offering cues that something foreboding is just under the surface of the light. Darkness only survives when it extinguishes light and hope. The filmmakers epitomized that fact in almost every scene, this torn family experiences a living nightmare.
Oddly enough, the running around from light to light didn’t get tedious like another film with a similar concept I saw a few years ago. That one got pretty ridiculous, because of the constant “don’t touch the floor, it’s lava” mentality that came with it. Thankfully, Lights Out had much more maturity and was grounded in shades of credibility. With a few exceptions, most of the peril the characters were in was easy to swallow. Sometimes horror films don’t grasp this, and the film gets away from them. But, with Diana, I think people might be talking about her for awhile.
Diana is truly horrifying; I suggest you make a point of meeting her . . . before she meets you. She does get lonely.
