Lights Out (2016)

An alternative to saving on your power bill

By: JWBM

As a child, what do you do if your mother is just a tad bit strange? The kind that has a tall, dark friend, talks to herself, and says it all with a charming, nothing's-wrong smile. Well, you've got your older sister to protect you. She grew up in the same household—and might be more towards the normal side—but is still not all the way caught up with the rest of society to be the best of role models.

"Lights Out" introduces you to a creature of sorts that thrives in the dark. Let in even a shred of light, and she disappears. Though that doesn't stop her from lingering on the edges of the shadows till just the right moment. In turn, the filmmakers use this to create more jump and scare theatrics than one can count on their razor sharp talons.

There's a dark family secret that threatens to tear everyone apart. Whether they had anything normal at any point, it's hard to say. This leads to an overcasting theme of trust issues: either between son to Mom, from Mom to Dad, from daughter to Mom, or from girlfriend to boyfriend. Plus the dark. Hard to trust that anymore after what they've seen, or felt with searing pain.

The writing attempted to go for a natural progression to feel out the characters. Though it has tendency to be noticeably restrained by sprinkling crumbs of the story throughout. It's to the point of not flowing smoothly from scene to scene and stretching itself out. Then at some point, the meat of it just falls into the lap of the daughter with all of the secrets to the past in one convenient package. Guess it's just another way of cutting right to the chase instead of the age ol' horror trope of a homeless person popping out of nowhere to shed light on all of the mysterious things afoot.

The vengeful, dark-past of a villain, Diana, seems interesting in the way they keep her half-in, half-out of the spotlight. However, the same can't be said about the other characters. The daughter has the looks, but doesn't come across as adept or adjusted to anything in particular to have her stand out. The boy is a token piece to play out some childhood fears, and feels more there to create drama between the Mom and daughter. The boyfriend says all of the right things at the right time to win the daughter over. Subtract his character and you're not missing much, except for maybe emotional support and a cool leather jacket. The story attempts to take on mental health issues, but then ends up not saying much if anything at all about them besides using it and an out of place antique looking house to act as a catalyst.

"Lights Out" isn't a bad film. Though it feels like the pacing has issues shifting between its gears without puttering from time to time. It attempted to do all of the right, little tricks, but didn't come together with a reasonable amount of fluidity. The writing feels somewhat formulaic without actually overcoming that with something that would stand out: such as an outstanding concept after the more intriguing short film with the same name; being more than an excuse to make you superficially jump; or actually being concerned with its own drama, than just being something to fill in the spaces between to show the more alluring villain. Even that is not enough to overall save this.

Rating: 5.5/10

Director: David F. Sandberg
Actors: Maria Bello, Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia
Info: IMDB
Trailer: Youtube