Finally, Lights Out, the much-awaited horror film by director David Sandberg, hit the screens. Previously in 2013, his short film, playing on the fear of the dark with a ghost-like entity coming on with the lights off, went viral on YouTube. So, does the same work for a feature-length movie? Let us look more closely at it in the Lights Out film review.
Lights Out Film Review – The Story
Sophie (Maria Bello), a troubled woman, lives with her son, Martin (Gabriel Bateman). She believes that Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey), a long dead friend, dwells with them. Of late, Martin has seen Diana too, and that’s been keeping him up all night. On turning off the lights, Diana suddenly shows up out of nowhere.
Rebecca (Teresa Palmer), Martin’s half-sister, who is living by herself after Sophie started behaving strangely, has led a rather unstable life. Only recently has she been able to stick around with a guy (Bret, played by Alexander DiPersia). Sophie’s mental instability prompts Rebecca to help Martin from Diana.
Lights Out Film Review – The Negatives
With a relatively weak backstory, David Sandberg might have done well to focus more on Sophie’s life and develop her character. Instead, the focus is on Rebecca, who ends up with most of the screen time. Lights Out, as a result of this, doesn’t manage to keep up the momentum through its 80-odd-minute runtime. Seldom it goes full throttle with Rebecca and Bret sharing far too much screen space.
Lights Out Film Review – The Positives
Maria Bello excels as the distraught mother, and probably gives the only truly noteworthy performance. Also, there are a couple of good jump scares that make you twitch a bit. The “lights on/off” premise of the film comes good in some scenes with the director making good use of lighting devices. One scene in particular, where Bret uses the headlights to drive away the menace following him is rather inventive.
The Final Word
Lights Out is average horror fare from director David Sandberg suggesting that we can expect better things from him in the future. However, for horror fans bred on high-intensity horror, this is a rather lo-fi affair. For those who prefer a milder dose of fright fest, it might prove satisfying.
Stars: 2.5/5
What do you think?