Red Lights (2012)

Psychologist Margaret Matheson and her assistant study paranormal activity, which leads them to investigate a world-renowned psychic who has resurfaced years after his toughest critic mysteriously passed away.

Director:

Rodrigo Cortés

Writer:

Rodrigo Cortés

Stars:

Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro, Cillian Murphy

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cillian Murphy	...	Tom Buckley
Sigourney Weaver	...	Margaret Matheson
Robert De Niro	...	Simon Silver
Toby Jones	...	Paul Shackleton
Joely Richardson	...	Monica Hansen
Elizabeth Olsen	...	Sally Owen
Craig Roberts	...	Ben
Leonardo Sbaraglia	...	Leonard Palladino
Adriane Lenox	...	Rina
Garrick Hagon	...	Howard McColm
Burn Gorman	...	Benedict Cohen
Mitchell Mullen	...	Jim Carroll
Nathan Osgood	...	Michael Sidgwick
Madeleine Potter	...	Sarah Sidgwick
Eloise Webb	...	Susan Sidgwick

Storyline

The skeptical psychologist Dr. Margaret Matheson and her assistant, physicist Tom Buckley, are specialists in disclosing fraudulent paranormal phenomena. When the famous psychic Simon Silver reappears to his public after many years of absence, Tom becomes singularly obsessed in determining whether Silver is a fraud or not.

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Plot Keywords:

psychic | revelation | obsession | younger version of character | road trip | 

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Taglines:

You only see what you want to believe

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some violence

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the video lab where Buckley works, there is a copy of the famous poster "I Want To Believe" from The X-Files (1993), but the quote is changed to "I Want To Understand".

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Goofs

Silver reveals to the TV host he knew it was a spoon she was holding because its handle was sticking out from her pocket earlier, not because he is psychic. However, if he were blind he wouldn't have been able to have seen this.

SPOILER: This may be incorrectly regarded as a goof if it is a very early tell that he is not actually blind, a significant plot twist not otherwise revealed until the very end of the film.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Tom Buckley: Margaret. Margaret. Margaret.
Margaret Matheson: [waking] Yes?
Tom Buckley: You should get some sleep.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the ending credits, the film's title flickers in a similar manner to the way light bulbs behave in the presence of psychic activity throughout the film.

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Connections

Featured in CineMaverick TV: Episode #1.2 (2012)

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Soundtracks

Semper Fidelis
Composed by John Philip Sousa
(p) & © Extreme Music Library Ltd
All Rights of the producer and the owner of the record work reserved.
Under license from Sony/ATV Music Publishing Spain LLC S. en C. / Extreme Music

User Reviews

Not impressed. Too hollow, self-conflicting, unfulfilled

Unimpressed. I liked the theme that the movie was hinting towards in the beginning. Scientists evaluating and debunking pseudo-science and psychic phenomena. Reminded me of the Great James Randi. But within minutes, it was clear that even that aspects are mangled up. Some investigations are shown without the results/ explanations given in detail. The debunks are simplistic, and talk about some of the common/ popular psychic cons, but never in detail; I wonder if people would catch it unless they are already familiar with the cons via documentaries and other shows.

I was particularly irritated about how they administered the Astrology chart test devised by James Randi, and popularized via "Pen & Teller: Bulls**t" episode. Cilian Murphy's character administered the test, and then left the scene without explaining the point of the exercise, which is a shame.

I liked Sigourney Weaver's character in the beginning, but the character turned out to be so poorly threshed out; not a lot better than a caricature of a pseudo-science skeptic.

I understand a lot of people have problems with the movie's ending. I can understand the frustration. The climactic twist takes away from the central premise, it reminded me of 'The Reaping' in some way. And besides being incongruous to the main storyline, it further had the problem of being very poorly executed.

Overall, I'd rate it around 4 out of 10. Not great.

Details

Country:

Spain Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 March 2012 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Red Lights

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Toronto Studios, Port Lands, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

EUR14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,340, 15 July 2012

Gross USA:

$52,624

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$14,107,313

Company Credits

Production Co:

Millennium Films, Cindy Cowan Entertainment, First Generation Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1