Lights Out has everything you wish to see in a horror movie. But there are instants herein that stop it from reaching petrifying levels of a great riveting horror flick. It doesn’t retain the flair of a slow paced scare. However, within its nimble charisma lies its true heart throbbing dread. Also, Alexander DiPersia is a pleasant discovery in the movie. He encounters its ghost in the most thrilling setup ever.
Plot of Lights Out
The video project of the same name that had gone viral three years ago, has been finally moulded into an artistic piece. Augmenting it further is a thrilling story to tell an imaginative tale that walks on a thin edge of palpability. Still the magic works!
After making a series of shorts, David F. Sandberg finally gets a fully-fledged project under the aegis of James Wan. What’s reassuring is that he delivers too. He includes Lotta Losten to the tale giving her a cameo of sorts, trying to revive the lost lights out video and then furthers the tale with new elements.
Direction of Lights Out Movie
David F. Sandberg’s inexperience transpires at a lot of junctions, wherein you could point, “He didn’t think this through!” It is like you can almost taste the lack of percipience in his work. There is passion in his job alright, the love for horror so loud and clear, that you can find it lurking at weird corners. But there is always a sense of thoughtful trepidation missing from his cinema that seemed to have primped down his work into a mere 1 hour 21 minute affair.
You can feel as if he was on a constant canter to reach the end. Maybe the short in him will take some time to wear off. Even though his direction barely reached the levels of horror veterans, he still manages to weave out something above mediocrity, and that is what counts.
Characters (Spoilers in the Dark Ahead)
Sandberg’s entry into the horror world receives three cheers from people all across the globe, owing to his unpredictability. He breaks horror clichés in many ways.
Alexander DiPersia as Bret Owns it
The first coming straight from a character like Bret. Alexander DiPersia who plays boyfriend to Rebecca, cannot be simply ignored. Breaking banality profusely the character fits like a rare gem in the movie. He isn’t a hero exactly, and yet he survives Diana’s attack on three occasions with sheer presence of mind. We generally tend to think boyfriends die first, because they are not important to the tale, but Sandberg decides to break the chains of platitude by keeping Bret alive and breathing. Within his limited screen-time, Alexander DiPersia delivers too.
There is this rare moment where Alexander DiPersia’s Bret is almost a dead guy, and yet he revives himself twice or thrice with his sheer presence of mind. Watch out for that bit!
Teresa Palmer’s Rebecca
The second most important character is that of Rebecca played by Teresa Palmer. She has this constant confident mien that she wears like a pro at odd hours. The only problem is that she condescends and patronizes Bret beyond limit, so much that you begin to wonder why Bret’s with her in the first place. Yet she packs in an uncommon poise that seems to fill you up with pluck too.
Others
Martin, played by Gabriel Bateman, her brother isn’t a wuss either. He is scared, terrified, but he always comes around. He has peerless tricks in his pockets that he comes up with to stay safe.
Billy Burke has a small cameo too in the prologue of Lights Out Movie.
Shortcomings
Apart from the directorial issues Lights Out had, there were other things that don’t go ignored either. Screenplay of the movie was terrible. At one point Martin drops a truism as if it was jostled out with originality. It seemed kind of stupid and forced needless to say.
When Rebecca is engaged in a face-off with Diana, she asks Bret to take Martin away. But when there’s a gunshot you see Bret still holding onto Martin unperturbed by what’s going on in the house. There was a gunshot for crying out loud. Why didn’t he come up with dozens of searchlights, or even better if he was short on time, light up the car lights and point it towards the house so there was at least some light that could save the inmates.
Another question that miffs you is how come Diana plays with lights sometimes moulding them to her will, and then sometimes forgets to switch them off. The constant disconnect in the plot like that makes Lights Out like a sieve of implausibility.
Also, you cannot completely overlook the fact that despite knowing that Diana is in the house, characters give in to sleeping in the house with Sophie. They were all so unprepared even though they knew the truth. That was a tad too much.
The Final Verdict
Darkness has forever intrigued us. There is something about its still aura that has us questioning us our sanity. A topic that will forever haunt us, just by its sheer fancy. David F. Sandberg milks the fact enough. I am afraid, not properly but he still manages to fabricate us a good horror flick.
If we don’t look in the direction of the downside-darkness of the Lights Out movie we still have something that is way above thousands of pointless horror movies. To that we nod him welcome.
A must-watch horror fans.
Check out the trailer of Lights Out movie here:
Lights Out
Pros
- Constant horror
- Good plot to keep horror afloat
- Breaking horror cliches
- Presence of mind of characters
Cons
- Flaws that cannot be unseen
- Average Direction
