Directed by David F. Sandberg
Written by Eric Heisserer, based on the short film “Lights Out” by David F. Sandberg
Cast: Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia, Maria Bello, Billy Burke, Lotta Losten, Amiah Miller
Soundtrack: Benjamin Wallfisch
Whether purely for the sake of art (‘Bottle Rocket’/’Bottle Rocket’), or merely as a means of obtaining funding (‘Within the Woods’/’The Evil Dead’), the short-film-to-feature-length-movie growth spurt has proven vital to the success of many big-name directors.
‘Lights Out’ began its life as a ~3 minute short. Whether this is an indicator of bigger and better things for writer/director David F. Sandberg remains to be seen, but it’s certainly a creepy enough concept: a woman is stalked by some malevolent force that only reveals itself in the dark, and, despite her best efforts to keep the lights on, she is unsuccessful. It works fine as a quick burst of terror, and it does prey upon one of our truly innate fears, but can you really stretch that out to feature length?
Well, somehow Sandberg and writer Eric Heisserer pulled it off, because ‘Lights Out’ does work. I admit, I may be being generous here because I’m still on something of a high from ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople‘, but, shockingly, I did like this movie.
For one thing, I think they got the most out of their low (by Hollywood standards) budget, which I always appreciate (a lot of that is keeping the cast as small as possible, which usually plays well in this genre anyway), but mostly, from a horror movie standpoint, I like ‘Lights Out’ because it’s everything ‘The Conjuring 2‘ isn’t: it’s not too long (if anything, it might wrap up a little too quickly), it leaves plenty to your imagination, and, it seems like just about everything is set up and paid off. On top of that, there are at least a couple of Easter eggs from the original short (namely actress Lotta Losten).
‘Lights Out’ also succeeds in an area I find particularly commendable. Many movies are predicated upon concepts that, when scrutinized with genuine logic, are, shall we say, wacky, but the worst films often give no logic, even movie logic, to what’s happening, resulting in a truly baffling experience. “Lights Out’ firmly establishes its rules from the get-go (the movie gets right into it), and largely stays true to them all the way through, which helps the movie immensely.
As someone who was expecting yet another dumb jump-scare-fest, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. The cast does a fine job with the material given, and there’s a throughline of “family” (not unlike the ‘Fast and Furious‘ canon) that actually feels heartfelt.
Maybe it’s not your first choice for this weekend, but if you’re looking for something spooky, I’d recommend ‘Lights Out’.
Rating: ★★★½