Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? Yes.
Should you watch this at weekend movie ticket prices? If you like horror films.
Score: 3.6/5
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 81 minutes (~1.25 hours)
“Lights Out” is a horror movie about a creature who cannot stand the light. A beleaguered family must find a way to stop this horror before it consumes everyone around them. It stars Teresa Palmer (Rebecca), Gabriel Bateman (Martin), Maria Bello (Sophie), Alexander DiPersia (Bret), Billy Burke (Paul), Alicia Vela-Bailey (Diana), and Lotta Losten (Esther). It is rated NC-16.
It’s been a week since I saw this and every time I turn out the lights, I’m just a little bit worried that there’s something lurking in the darkness. The other day I was also taking a picture of a reflective object and I swear there was a woman standing behind me, although it turned out to be a warped reflection of the bookshelf. “Lights Out” may be short, but it’s certainly punchy. You might not think that those scares are really that terrifying (after all, all you need to do is to turn on the lights) but it’s a fear that’ll linger in your mind for a long time…
Highlights
Tense
Every single time you see something dark, you’ll tense up. I’m not kidding. The movie trains you to stiffen up whenever there’s a dark corner or a locked room with the lights out. You’ll dread how slowly the characters approach the darkness, especially since you really can’t see what’s lurking in the shadows.
Ingenuity
Bret (Alexander DiPersia) displays an impressive amount of ingenuity when confronting the creature, especially since he seems to be a dumb stoner most of the time. When faced with a being that is only scared of the light, it’s amazing how many things there are around you that’s bright enough to hold it at bay. It’s a primal fear that’s defeated by modern convenience… but whether it’s defeated for good is another question altogether.
Scares
The scares are made all the worse because you, the audience, knows exactly what’s coming – and the characters sometimes don’t. So they keep switching on and off the lights, testing their vision, wondering if they’re seeing things, all while the creature gets closer and closer to them – until it’s in their face! Most of them manage to survive… somehow. But knowing a fright is coming makes it so much worse.
Martin is surprisingly mature and independent
Martin (Gabriel Bateman) plays a young boy who’s smart and self-aware for his age. In fact, he’s possibly the most competent character in the film, given that he’s so young but he knows what to do and how to handle the obstacles that come his way. He’s an example of how a good, useful child character can be written without turning them into a cliche or a Mary Sue, and the fact that such a skilled character can be endangered speaks to the deadliness of the creature.
Letdowns
Ambiguity
What exactly is the antagonist? “Lights Out” leads you down one road, but then springs another explanation on you after that. For those of you who’ve watched films like “The Boy” you’ll have some sort of expectation after all the exposition plays out, yet it doesn’t quite add up. This is the only flaw of the film, in that it doesn’t payoff what it sets up. Then again, it’s this ambiguity that makes Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey) all the more terrifying.
“Lights Out” is an example for all good horror films to follow.
“Lights Out” opens in cinemas:
– 18 August, 2016 (Singapore)
– 21 July, 2016 (Malaysia)
– 21 July, 2016 (Philippines)
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