Director: David F. Sandberg
Writer: Eric Heisserer
Cast: Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Maria Bello, Alexander DiPersia, Alicia Vela-Bailey
Runtime: 81 mins.
2016
Horror is trendy. Like Hollywood blockbusters, the horror genre goes through phases of acute innovation, aggressive imitation, and creative devastation. Halloween cemented the formula for the golden age of the slasher film. Saw trailblazed the torture porn genre of the 00's. Now horror in the 10's seems to be congealing around the brainy indie horror prospects offered by Jennifer Kent's 2014 film The Babadook. These films are low budget but high concept, often with a heavy thematic underpinning that has to do with Serious Issues.
As yet, Lights Out might be the most unabashed benefactor of the model set down by The Babadook. Both are stories about children struggling with the specter of their mothers' chronic depression, as made manifest by a horrible shadow creature infiltrating their home. Despite the clear similarities, the experience of watching Lights Out feels visually and structurally different enough to avoid being branded an out and out copycat. Unfortunately, where the films do overlap, Lights Out is worse in every way.
The protagonist of the film is pretty girl Rebecca (Teresa Palmer). We are introduced to her in a cutesy dialogue exchange with her sort-of boyfriend, pretty boy Bret (Alexander DiPersia). From there, these two characters get embroiled in the plight of Rebecca's little brother, Martin (Gabriel Bateman), who has been dealing with a mother who speaks to the darkness as if someone is speaking back. But Rebecca has discovered that someone really is there: a predatory silhouette named Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey). She is a visible, physical threat in the darkness, but disappears entirely when exposed to any light source. Rebecca soon learns that her family will never be safe from Diana unless they confront the problem head on. These are the basic building blocks for our drama.
