Lights Out (2016)

Director: David F Sandberg

Writer: Eric Heisserer (Screenplay) David F Sandberg (Original Short Film)

Starring: Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia, Billy Burke, Maria Bello, Alicia Vela-Bailey, Andi Osho

 

Plot: When her little brother, Martin, experiences the same events that once tested her sanity, Rebecca works to unlock the truth behind the terror, which brings her face to face with an entity that has an attachment to their mother, Sophie.

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Solid Horror

 

Story: Lights Out starts as we meet Paul (Burke) a family man working late in a warehouse who finds himself haunted by something in the dark which eventually catches up with him killing him. We move on to meet Paul’s wife Sophie (Bello) who looks their child Martin (Bateman) but is talking to something within the dark.

His Step-daughter Rebecca (Palmer) has been living her own life all grown up that has to help look after Martin when Sophie starts acting strangely only to learn there is something trying to take their lives with a connection to her childhood.

Lights Out is one of the horror films that came around from a short horror that is quite frankly excellent but could it get extended into a full feature film? The answer is a kind of because the horror elements of the story work but the story around it all feels very forced and just doesn’t hit the original marks needed. The characters didn’t get developed well enough and in the end I felt most of the story side of the film were just taken from other films about a creature/ghost in the dark.

 

Overall: Good on the scares dull on the story.

Rating