Lights Out

Martin is a little boy hounded by a monster in the dark. His dad (Billy Burke) is killed by a woman in the dark. His mother (Maria Bello) seems to be talking to that mysterious being called Diana. Children's Services calls in his step-sister Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) who has commitment issues unwilling to even let Bret keep one sock at her place. Rebecca takes Martin to her home upon seeing her mother in dire mental state.

The visual concept of a lurker in the dark is quite compelling. The movie could have done more with a slower burn. It does a big kill right at the beginning which leaves the shock of discovery less overwhelming. It becomes the same move over and over again. It's a great move but it would work so much better with a gradual ramp up. The mother's madness is intriguing. A little more thought could be used to maximize the story.

Its brilliance lies in its simplicity. Lights out doesn't attempt to confuse anyone, nor does it look to introduce a totally original idea. Instead, it boldly and unambiguously taunts the audience with the message, "you were all afraid of the dark as kids and most of you still are."

Never has a scary movie villain had such an easy foil—light. Literally any kind of light—sun, fluorescent, bright. They each work perfectly well. Shine any sort of light in the direction of this movie's monster and she disappears. Poof. She's gone and everyone is safe. Writing this, I recognize that this doesn't sound even the tiniest bit scary. Yet somehow, as I sat in my well-lit house after watching the movie, I felt afraid.

A brief telling of the plot: there's a monster-demon-ghost-girl named Diana that lives only in darkness because light hurts her, and sometimes she kills people. She haunts other people in the movie who try to not be killed by her and also they try to defeat her. That's really all there is to know. Yes, it's a very simple plot, but still an enjoyable one, at least in this instance.

Something about the beautiful simplicity of the scare tactics just worked. Nothing confusing, nothing shocking. There weren't even very many classic hanging suspense moments interrupted by loud, jolt scares. These we textbook jump scares. A seemingly safe moment with normal amounts of sound that slowly drifts to silence then POW! A jump scare.

You may be thinking, "this sounds lame. How does this brutally basic approach yields effective scares?" Great question, my astute and thoughtful reader.

I've thought about this question and come up with a few explanations. First, we owe a tremendous credit to the actress who played Diana (Alicia Vela-Baley). Her intimidating posture and sickly contorting and Freddy Kruegerish flailing arms bring to life a terrifying character, whose mere presence on screen is enough to leave viewers unsettled. There's something about crouching, and Vela-Baley is great at it. Seeing a person crouch in a well-lit area is comical. But looking at a crouching figure in the shadows, that will make your skin crawl. The other explanation that I will offer is the visceral nature of the scares. Much of the movie takes place in the dark and the dark is scary. We are evolutionarily predispositioned to fear the dark. It's a survival instinct. Don't argue with me on this. I'm right.

Anyway, the dimly-lit, shadowy settings are the perfect playground for visceral and pure jump scares. Director David F. Sandberg hits all the right beats in framing and lurking camera movement to maximize this simple and smart approach.

So, that's it. If you can't stand jump scares or scary movies, don't see Lights Out. Honestly, I'm not sure why you're even reading this review if you don't like scary movies. If you do like jump scares and scary movies, watch Lights Out. And maybe buy a couple extra lightbulbs or a nightlight before you do.

Mystery and horror movie including chills , intrigue , terrifying happenings and it's certainly better than most other films of the same genre concerning a diabolic and mysterious terror appearing at a house . Enjoyable horror movie with thrills , chills and strange events , while the roles scream and panic her way through most of their scenes and including limited CGI . One of the film's strongest points is the fact that there's quite a lot of fun to be had with the supernatural aspects of the storyline . Stars Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) who must unlock the horror behind her traumatized little sibling's (Gabriel Bateman)grisly experiences that once tested her sanity , bringing her face to face with a supernatural spirit attached to their mother (Maria Bello) . At mother's house takes place a series of strange and eerie incidents . Later on , Rebecca is shocked when to be aware about the weird person there inhabits . Everything then changes in eerie way and things go wrong . You were right to be afraid of the dark. Darkness will consume you. Every Child Need To Feel Loved.

A creepy and thrilling film about a haunting house where lives a weird being , it packs inexplicable disturbing occurrences , shocks, thrills , suspense , chills, hair-rising events and surprising final twist . This starts off at the very beginning occuring mysterious happenings , as the camera lurks suspensenful behind its actors and beside them and above them and everywhere else . A scary and unsettling flick that garnered very positive reception on the internet in spite of its short budget , as the picture goes on growing more and more and developing little by little until the unexpected conclusion . The main and support cast are pretty well , giving attractive performances such as Teresa Palmer , Maria Bello , Gabriel Bateman , Alexander DiPersia and brief acting by Billy Burke as unfortunate father.

The pic contains a dark and colorful cinematography by Marc Spicer . Equally, a mysterious and suspenseful musical score by Benjamin Wallfisch , composing a sinister atmosphere . The motion picture was competently directed by horror expert David F. Sandberg who made the decision to focus on practical effects and avoided as much computed generator effects as possible . Being feature film debut of David F. Sandberg . As David decided to expand his original short film Lights out (2013) into a feature film thanks to producer James Wan , the latter has financed and directed notorious horror movies , such as : Swamp Thing , The Curse of La Llorona , Saw saga , Annabelle: Creation , Conjuring saga , Insidious saga , Demonic , Annabelle , among others . While fimmaker David Sanberg has made a few films all of them limited to short movies and terror genre as Annabelle : Creation , adding a peculiar superhero movie : ¡Shazam! (2019) . Rating 6.5/10. Acceptable and decent terror movie. Well worth watching.

Lights out really is a great modern horror film. It offers great thrills and also offers wonderful acting. Every actor did their job beautifully and the characters they portray are well constructed, they are not just surface level, cardboard cut out characters. The visuals are good, the darkness and the creepy eeriness effect of a lot of scenes work very well. There are some scenes that may even be somewhat hard to watch because of the utter creepiness. Diana and the visuals that make her up are done very well and the horror is real here, it's not cheap or cheesily boring. The opening of the film is also very effective in its attempt to be truly scary. This movie isn't very gory or overly grotesque either, it has a minimal amount of blood/gore, and some violent images, but not a whole whole lot, which it good and a wise decision by the filmmakers, because if a scary movie is too gory or overly disturbing, then it can be distracting from the plot. You want people focused on the plot of the movie and on what's going on, not on the ridiculous amount of gore. Lights out receives an 8/10 on my scale.

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.