Fear the dark.
Based on his own short film, David F. Sandberg’s feature-length debut has a wonderfully simple central premise: fear the monster that lurks in the dark. Though it occasionally gets bogged down in an on-the-nose screenplay, Lights Out is an otherwise quite relentless horror flick that plays on basic childhood terrors with efficiency.
Lights Out opens with a near beat-for-beat recreation of the short, albeit in the gloomy textile factory workplace of Paul (Billy Burke). It’s here, among the sinister mannequins and flickering industrial lights, that the film introduces us to its monster’s rules: you’re safe in the light, but don’t count on the lights staying on.
It’s a powerful hook, explored to disquieting effect as Lights Out introduces us to the fractured family the demon seems attached to. Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) lives above a tattoo parlour in downtown L.A. since becoming estranged with her mentally-ill mother Sophie (Maria Bello). With her sweet, yearning boyfriend Bret (Alexander DiPersia) in tow, she must cope with the burgeoning fears of 10-year-old step-brother Martin (Gabriel Bateman), who claims that Sophie’s inner demon is, in fact, real.
There’s a great deal of tension born from the strained relationship between mother and son. Bello does an excellent job at dancing between maternal and disassociated, and the barely-heard conversations between her and unseen demon “Diana” tap into early fears of our parents losing control.
As Rebecca begins to unravel the truth behind Sophie and her “friend’s” relationship, she too comes face to face with Diana. A feral, scratching thing with glowing eyes, made more sinister by actress Alicia Vela-Bailey’s spider-like physicality, Light’s Out’s “practical” creature is its biggest - and most terrifying - strength.
Diana’s increasingly frequent visits eventually culminate in a slightly nonsensical “intervention” in Sophie’s oppressive, twisting house, but the plan makes for a wonderfully tense sequence in which the trio desperately try to keep the lights on in the face of Diana’s omnipresent ability to turn them off. While batteries die, lightbulbs flicker and the glare of a cell phone display is desperately fumbled at, Sandberg’s natural talent as a horror director shines.
The cast sell the family connection. Palmer is great as the protective sister who just wants to do right by her little brother, and DiPersia manages to make an underwritten role endearing. It’s just a shame they have to deal with a script that so often signposts its themes in big bold text; some appreciation of the audience’s intelligence wouldn’t have gone amiss here.
The Verdict
With an unnerving monster at its core, great cast and relentless final sequence, Light’s Out is a debut director Sandberg should be proud of. A clunky script occasionally loosens its grip on the nerves, but chances are Diana will still have you sleeping with the lights on for a good while after leaving the theatre.
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