Lights Out
Directed by: David F. Sandberg.
Written by: Eric Heisserer based on
the short film by David F. Sandberg.
Starring: Teresa Palmer (Rebecca),
Gabriel Bateman (Martin), Alexander DiPersia (Bret), Maria Bello (Sophie), Billy
Burke (Paul), Alicia Vela-Bailey (Diana).
Lights Out is a horror movie
with a simple concept that works because of its direction and performances. It
is based on director David F. Sandberg's short film – that while only 3 minutes
long, was so well received, that he got $5 million for James Wan (director of
The Conjuring, etc) to turn it into a feature. The film is about a deranged,
spirit woman named Diana who has attached herself to her friend, Sophie (Maria
Bello), who is her only connection to this world, and will do anything to
protect that connection. One husband is has already run off, and another dies
in the film’s opening sequence. Her two kids – Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) now in
her 20s, has distanced herself from her family, and has tried to put her own
childhood run-ins with Diana out of her mind. She is drawn back in out of
concern for her 10 year old half-brother, Martin (permanently wide-eyed Gabriel
Bateman). Oh, and Diana can only attack in the dark – she disappears as soon as
light hits her. You would think this would make it easy to beat her – and you’d
be wrong.
The original short film had no
explanation for its demon woman character, and in the feature, that is the
weakest part of the film. There is a lot of psycho-babble and talk of
experiments, and blah blah blah – no one cares. I really wish more horror
movies would take the tactic of The Babadook or It Follows, who doesn’t really
feel the need to explain where the monster comes from, because there is
literally no one to explain them that doesn’t sound ridiculously stupid. What matters
in horror movies is that the scares are real, and that you actually care about
the characters in jeopardy. In that regard, Lights Out is two-for-two.
To be fair, you could complain
that many (perhaps most) of the scares in Lights Out are of the BOO! moment
variety – where a character appears from nowhere to scare the crap out of the
audience. These are, more often than not, both effective and cheap – the work
in the moment, but don’t stay with you in the way the truly terrifying movie
moments do. What sets the moments in Lights Out apart is that they actually do
stick with you. Lights Out exploits our natural fear of the dark – not an
overly original fear to exploit, I know, but an effective one. You can never
quite tell what Diana is going to do – she isn’t always there to try and kill
or hurt someone – something it’s just to stoke their fear. Sandberg mixes up
the types of scares he puts on the audience.
Perhaps more importantly, he
also makes us care about the three main characters as well (he is a little less
effective at making us care for Rebecca’s floppy haired boyfriend, but, he
seems nice). Bello and Palmer are perfectly cast as mother-daughter (from the
previews, which didn’t reveal much of the story, I actually thought Palmer was
playing a younger version of Bello – and thought that was perfect as well). Bello’s
role is the type that allows actors to over-the-top if the choose – but Bello
does something lower key – her mental problems are clearly there, but she
doesn’t go wide eyed manic. It’s a more effective performance than it probably
should be. Palmer is excellent as well – playing a woman trying to overcome her
past and her own issues, at the same time, trying to be a good sister. She is a
typical horror movie heroine in some ways, but she grounds her fear in the real
world.
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