Lights Out is an interesting stab at a horror movie based on a 2013 short film of the same name. The movie's novel concept is a creature that can only be seen and manifest in the dark. Turn a torch on, and it disappears. Naturally, this means that a lot of the movie is spent in the dark but this works well.The use of lighting is one of the movie's strong points and allows for some creative, and occasionally funny, uses of torches, candles and even car headlights. This technique generates a lot of the scares and atmosphere and given the movie's title, this is a must. Definitely top marks for the director on this part.
Teresa Palmer and Gabriel Bateman do well in the lead roles as the unfortunate kids with a crazy mother, played by Maria Bello. The problem with the movie is that apart from its main concept, it doesn't add much else. Clichés abound and yes, there is the mandatory dark basement (groan). Most of the scares are jump-out-at- you shocks and it's all been done before. Hollywood seems to have forgotten how to use psychological horror and churns out movies that are just twists on the same theme. This is probably a bit harsh as the movie is enjoyable enough and it's well-written, but I long for something new that isn't so long in the tooth.
The supernatural horror is effective and does elicit a genuine threat to the characters. Maria Bello, in particular, does well to ramp up the threat levels and makes you wonder who is going to make it out alive. As already mentioned, this was based on a short film and it really still is, coming in at around 80 minutes. Perhaps there wasn't enough material to make a longer movie but there's a feeling that it ends just as it gets going.
Lights Out is a decent film if you feel the need for a dash of supernatural horror but don't expect anything stand-out; it just doesn't deliver enough of a impact to make it memorable. It's good for what it does but don't buy too much popcorn as you may not have time to finish it.
