This is a movie that just floats along until it becomes socially irresponsible not to divulge some sort of explanation. Unfortunately, the script to Lights Out, which can basically be summed up as The Babadook but dumb, is not the project that will bring his talents into view. These very limited grace notes tell us that director Sanberg indeed has some visual chops, and could very well have a solid horror feature inside of him that will come out one day. (Another great moment involves inserting a carport into a chase.) The rhythm of the flashing sign gives the sequence an entertaining cadence, one of about three moments in which Lights Out delivers on the promise of that viral video. That anachronistic set design serves a plot purpose, though, when Mom sends over her undead darkness monster. She’s a bad girl! Teresa Palmer may look like the picture of health, but we know she’s got problems because she lives above a tattoo parlor that blinks a red neon light all through the night. You’ll notice them as she kicks her boyfriend (Alexander DiPersia) out after their intimate visits. Her irresponsible ways manifest themselves in the heavy metal posters that hang in the bachelorette pad. Coming to Martin’s aid is his older half-sister, Rebecca (Teresa Palmer), who must give up her lifestyle of fast living to accept being an adult. Instead it bogs down with typical bumps in the night as a screwy mom (Maria Bello) deals with her netherworld demons, threatening the safety of her young son Martin (Gabriel Bateman). But Lights Out doesn’t come up with anything creative.
Is this something you can stretch out into an entire movie? Sure! Herman Melville stretched out “there once was a fish this big – but it got away!” into the greatest novel in American letters. Turn the light off again and the creepy, semi-visible creature with catlike tapetum lucidum is even closer! Genuinely horrifying no matter how many times you see it. Did I see a weird silhouette? Let me switch on the light. Basically, there’s a ghoul that you can only see when it’s dark. It would, however, be unfair not to at least praise its central gimmick, the same one found in director David F Sanberg’s viral two-and-a-half-minute video that grabbed the attention of the horror mogul James Wan. I know it’s summertime, and some of the programming can be ephemeral, but Lights Out’s greatest feat is how you can feel yourself forgetting this 81-minute piffle as you are actually watching it. But who will ever be nostalgic for the mainstream horror films that are flooding our marketplace today? Lights Out is yet another half-baked, PG-13 scare-em snoozer centered on an underdeveloped supernatural concept that won’t even give kids a good nightmare. Even the distasteful torture porn of the early 21st century wins a few points just for pissing so many people off.
From the Universal Monsters to cheeseball Vampira-hosted B pictures, from Italian giallo to gory 80s exploitation flicks in enormous VHS cases, one can reflect fondly on it all. But this time, as Rebecca gets closer to unlocking the truth, there is no denying that all their lives are in danger…once the lights go out.F ew genres lend themselves to nostalgia like horror. A frightening entity with a mysterious attachment to their mother, Sophie, has reemerged. Growing up, she was never really sure of what was and wasn’t real when the lights went out…and now her little brother, Martin, is experiencing the same unexplained and terrifying events that had once tested her sanity and threatened her safety. When Rebecca left home, she thought she left her childhood fears behind. RELATED: Lights Out Movie Cast and Crew Tease the Summer Horrorįrom New Line Cinema, the house that Freddy built, comes a tale of an unknown terror that lurks in the dark. Check them all out in the gallery viewer below! New Line Cinema has released 25 new Lights Out stills, offering a look inside the upcoming horror film from producer James Wan ( The Conjuring, Insidious, Saw) and director David F. 25 new Lights Out stills offer a look inside the July 22 horror thriller