This movie will get your pulse up fast, revealing the "horror" very early on. Interestingly enough, it keeps that pulse up throughout the movie despite of this. The concept of something that can only appear and be seen if it's dark (and with a somewhat supernatural ability to destroy light bulbs) is bound to lead to a jump scare or ten whenever it appears. Towards the end you've almost gotten so used to it that the scare effect wears off a bit, and is one of two reason I don't rank this a 10. But thanks to a good story and good actors, the movie still holds its ground to the very end.
The characters are really good, well written and performed, and with a young boy that if not before, totally kick started his future acting career with this movie. Who doesn't love a young prodigy? The plot has some weight and emotion to it, and with a solid ending that wraps things up in a much more satisfying way than most similar movies.
The other small drawback with this movie for me was mostly because of slightly unrealistic behavior from our main characters, occasionally. Like when miss heels from Jurrasic World is worried that when she releases T-Rex it won't be able to follow her if she runs. So, she waits for it to come close, walks for a bit, then runs. Those kinds of unrealistic behaviors. But I've seen much worse, and this movie doesn't take the "unrealistic" very far, or often, so I suggest you just put this on and roll with it!
All in all you get everything you want from a jump scare movie with Lights Out, with a good plot and good actors that deliver, and a scare factor we all can relate to. You might not be so happy with turning of your lights going to bed later that night, so if you have a weak stomach you might wanna sit this one out.
