Lights Out Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: The children of a mentally unstable mother learn that her childhood friend has become a supernatural entity that lives within darkness.

Review: I'm not going to lie, this really disappointed me. While "Lights Out" is an undeniably good film, I had high expectations given the reviews coupled with the studio's confidence to push for a summer release. Unfortunately, the story feels empty and lacks any sort of reasoning for the events. Likewise, the antagonist is not fleshed out, and the parameters of her powers are nonsensical and inconsistent. In fact, I'd say they took a composite of every long-haired, ghost girl ever and spliced it with that bitch from "Darkness Falls." Obviously the film itself is based upon a short, so that might explain the shallowness, but I anticipated a greater quality of horror. I honestly think the guy that made the initial short should consider montaging all of his other shorts together into a makeshift, anthology film.

Starting with the positives I guess we can address the ghost(?) herself, Diana. From the shadows, she has a great design--effectively creepy, ominous, and intimidating. I did like the way they toyed with the lighting and the narrow escapes when a character would turn on the lights. More to the point, the cinematography is structured in such a way that you never know where or when Diana will pop out. This is exceptionally well done. If you don't watch many horror movies I can see these setups being especially startling. As with the best of horror, "Lights Out" was able to seamlessly blend together jumpscares, creepy atmosphere, and big set pieces. The characters were on the one-dimensional side, but they were compelling enough that you care if they survived or not. I guess it's important to note that the kid, Martin, was not annoying since most kids in horror are pains in the ass. Surprisingly, there was no final zinger--which felt like a given for a movie like this--so I'll give them credit for that unexpected turn of events. Finally, I think the pacing was nearly perfect for this type of horror; you had a solid opening accompanied by a slew of scares during almost every subsequent scene.

As for the shortcomings...the origin of Diana and her ill-defined nature is bothersome. It's still unclear whether she is even a ghost or some other kind of supernatural entity. For one, she died as a child yet her current form is an adult. It's kind of implied she has grown with the mother over the years, but how the hell does a ghost grow up? Furthermore, she exists in a supernatural state, able to teleport and other shit, yet she really does occupy space? What? I don't get it. I mean, we see her in the basement as if she's actually been "living" down there, and the light can, seemingly, physically harm her if under the UV light. It didn't help either that her makeup design is not on par with her shadowy version. Besides that, her origin is a bit Samara-lite and nonsensical. She has some skin condition, spontaneously combusted (not a real word?) or whatever, and then became spiritually bonded to the mom...except her ghost can be suppressed by medication?! Ugh...what a fucking mess. Connected to this nonsense is the unclear way that all these events have progressed over the decades like the main chick's dad dying off screen. Another bullshit aspect was that the story simply wraps up nicely, because it's written in the script. Ummm, two cops just got killed, the mom committed suicide, and you have a few suspicious characters left standing with only two explanations: claiming a fucking ghost did it or blame everything on the mom. If they chose the former then someone should be in handcuffs, and, if they chose the latter, that's a pretty fucked up resolution despite the happy ending vibe!

In the end, the positives do outweigh the negatives, but those negatives are of a considerable magnitude (pop pop!). I appreciate the effort to tell an original story, and they did succeed at making things reasonably scary. Had the story made more sense, or we were given better and more thorough explanations, I'd draw conclusions of my own. However, there is a fine line between spoon-feeding and not explaining jackshit. There are already talks of a sequel so they better actually address these glaring issues outright. Still, I'd recommend checking this out--it's a good movie but with heavy and noticeable flaws.

Notable Moment: When the mom tries to have Martin "befriend" Diana. Things don't go smoothly...

Final Rating: 6/10