Lights Out
I’m not gonna lie- one of my biggest scares is the idea of someone or something suddenly leaping out at me in the darkness. That made it a bit unnerving when I would work, and close, the projection booth in my early years as a manager, and if I’m there by myself in the morning, before the sun is up, it can be just as freaky and paranoia-inducing to someone who deals with anxiety. So the big question is, why the Hell would I consciously go to a horror movie that works on that very principle? Well, for one thing, many do, but David F. Sandberg’s “Lights Out,” which is built out of a short film of his that he adapted with Eric Heisserer, is that very idea manifest on the screen. More so than being scared, though, good horror can also be cathartic, a way of exorcising some of those anxieties by allowing you to experience them in a controlled way. That’s why the best of the genre are ones that hew closer to a level of reality (see “The Shining,” “The Conjuring” films, “The Exorcist”) than your never will achieve with the typical slasher or zombie film, however skillfully put together.
One of the great things about “Lights Out” is that it builds it’s story out of a lot of typical horror tropes (possession, haunting, things that go bump in the night, creepy kids) and turns it on in a fresh way. The events surround the family of Sophie (Maria Bello), a wife and mother who has also had a history of schizophrenia and hallucinations. Her husband has just died under mysterious, violent circumstances at his work, and Sophie is stuck in her grief in a too-large house for her and her young son, Martin (Gabriel Bateman). Her daughter Rebecca (Theresa Palmer) moved out not long after her father’s death, and is concerned about Martin while also not wanting to get close to her boyfriend Bret (Alexander DiPersia). In addition to her depression, Sophie also is talking to someone no one else can see in the light, Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey). When the lights are out, however, she is a figure of terror for anyone who can see her. We’ve seen in an earlier scene that Diana may be the reason Sophie’s husband is dead. The question is why, and how to stop her.
The film is produced by James Wan (the “Conjuring” and “Insidious” series), and his gifts as a horror director to illicit terror out of the shadows and sound design is something he brings out in Sandberg when adapting his 2 1/2 minute short film. If you’ve seen the trailers, or just are aware with the conventions of horror filmmaking in general, you’ll be able to see a lot of the film’s jump moments coming, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable to watch. (Especially with the right audience.) “The Conjuring” and “Insidious” this is not from a storytelling standpoint, though it’s an interesting representation of depression and grief manifest, but horror fans should be able to get some enjoyment out of it’s 80-minute running time.
