'Lights Out' Review

About 3 years ago, the world was scared stiff by a little short film entitled Lights Out, written and directed by David F. Sandberg. The film went viral and Sandberg gained notable acclaim for putting together such a horrifying tale in merely two minutes. Now Sandberg has returned with a feature-length reimagining of his original short, Lights Out. The film is a supernatural horror film starring Teresa Palmer, Maria Bello and Gabriel Bateman as a family who become terrorised by a mysterious being called Diana who can only appear when the lights are out. While the film does have some flaws, altogether it is an enjoyable little horror film.

Sandberg uses familiar horror tropes in Lights Out in order to scare the audience, and although it is pretty heavy on the jumpscares, most of the time they are very well executed and there is this underlying feeling of suspense right from the get go. Sandberg makes excellent use of lighting and shadows, leaving us constantly anticipating where Diana, the films antagonist, will spring from next. The film soon becomes a fun game of sorts where every dark corner and shadowy hall is off limits and any sliver of light is sanctuary and for the most part it's a lot of fun. The protagonists constantly fight to keep the lights on while Diana takes advantage of any bit of darkness she can, it does get a bit tedious after a while and towards the end the whole lights on/lights off thing gets a bit repetitive, however its 81 minute run time stops it from getting too dragged out. Diana herself is a terrifying creation, a dark figure with long, spindly fingers and scraggy hair with two shining eyes peeping out from the darkness, she has the audience on edge whenever she springs out from the shadows. Diana is sure to join the long line of iconic movie monsters.

The film also boasts some very strong performances, Teresa Palmer plays Rebecca, the primary protagonists who fights to save her little brother Martin (Bateman) from the sinister Diana. Palmer gives a great performance and brings to life a rather likeable character who the audience roots for throughout. The stand out performance for me however, was Maria Bello as Sophie, the mother of Rebecca and Martin. She gives a powerful, almost harrowing performance as a woman struggling with inner demons both figurative and literal. Her and Palmer share a great mother/daughter chemistry onscreen and manage to bring a layer of emotion to the film. I also enjoyed Alexander DiPersia as Rebecca's boyfriend Bret, he acts as a comic relief of sorts throughout the film and his confrontation with Diana in the final act is quite funny despite teetering on being plain silly. While the acting is all very strong, the cast are let down by a poor script that's full of cringe-worthy dialogue that feels unnatural and at times out of place. They make some of the films most emotional moments laughable and really bring it down at some parts, luckily the acting manages to make some of the terrible dialogue bearable.

The films visuals are one of its strongest points, hats off to the cinematographer Marc Spicer for the incredible use of lighting throughout. Lighting and shadows are used very much as a storytelling device in Lights Out and it works very well. I particularly enjoyed the sinister red lighting in Rebecca's apartment from the tattoo parlour outside, fading on and off and giving Diana an advantage over her. The lighting and shadowing, along with a consistent atmosphere of tension allow for some pretty clever scares throughout. No scene feels safe in this film, each one feels like it has some purpose and that Diana could jump from the shadows at any time which is how the tension is kept so consistent. However this does cause the film to feel a little rushed at times, especially when Rebecca is investigating Diana's backstory, at times it feels as though the film could slow down just a bit to allow for a little more development. With such a short runtime it's hard not to feel like Lights Out was a little rushed, however I feel if it ran on for any longer the whole concept would have just gotten warn out.

Lights Out is a fun film with strong performances, clever scares and an a sense of emotion that allows us to care for our protagonist. However, even despite the short runtime, the scares do feel a little repetitive and at times it feels as though the filmmakers were trying to cram as much shocks into the 81 minutes as they could. It's because of this that the film feels so rushed, it spends every scene trying to scare us or at least fool us into thinking we'll be scared, that it never takes the time to just slow down and take a breather. It's a film with such a powerful emotional heart that could have been developed a lot more with even just a couple of scenes dedicated to it. However, it does finish just as the formula gets monotonous so I suppose it was right to end things there. The script does the film no favours either but thankfully it is redeemed by the excellent cast. Lights Out does have flaws and does suffer from familiarity now and again, but for the most part it is a clever and entertaining little film that sets up a promising career for director David F. Sandberg.