Review by CJ

Director:
David F. Sandberg

Starring:
Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia, Maria Bello

Other notable appearances:
Billy Burke

Running time:
81 minutes

Watch this if you liked:
The Conjuring, Sinister, Poltergeist (2015)

When Rebecca’s (Palmer) brother Martin (Bateman) starts to see the same figure that haunted Rebecca as a child, the siblings discover they have every reason to be afraid of the dark.

Lights Out is a good supernatural horror flick that feeds on our primal fear of the dark and what lurks inside it.

The plot is interesting with a bit of depth. The depth is enough to give you a background on the characters but not enough to crowd the horrors and jump scares that await.

The scares are there from the get go. Lights Out employs a tactic in films that I love and that is not to overexpose the predator or creature. The villain in Lights Out is only seen as a shadowy figure until the film’s climax. It is a tactic that also feeds on our fear of the unknown.

The actors in Lights Out do a great job of portraying their characters. While horror movie acting is seldom Oscar worthy there is a huge difference between horror movies where the acting is good and ones where the acting causes the film to cross into comedy.

While most of Lights Out is well plotted horror, I had an issue with the film’s conclusion. To me, it felt like a lazy cop-out. I can see why the filmmakers would have chosen to take this route, but personally I found it to be an unsatisfying conclusion.

Overall, Lights Out is a good horror film with what I felt was a disappointing ending. Regardless of that, it is definitely worth watching if you are a fan of supernatural horror and good scares without needing to rely on gore.

Rating:

“Her name is Diana.”