[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Plot: Rebecca suspects her mother, Sophie, is mentally declining and putting her young brother, Martin, at risk, so she steps in to take care of him. Little does she know, an entity tied to Sophie’s past is the cause.
Review: Lights Out is neither bad nor enveloping. It doesn’t offend the genre, nor does it move it forward. It isn’t laughable or funny, but it isn’t particularly scary either. It simply stays safely in the middle and ends up being a predictable by-the-book low budget horror flick.
The gimmick is the best aspect of the film: When the lights are out, the ghost appears. Director David F. Sandberg makes sure this concept gets put to the test as often as it can, wherever it can. You can probably figure out how things will play out. Uh oh, the power in the house is cutoff. That means they can’t turn the lights on anymore! Turn on the flashlights, and cell phone lights quick! Oh no! They ran out of batteries! What do we do now? Hey, we conveniently found a blacklight. Now we can turn the tables on this apparition!
Teresa Palmer does a believable job as Rebecca. Hers is a coming of age story, one of accepting the responsibility of life and growing up. She wants to help her brother, she wants to take him away from their mother, but when Child Protective Services comments on the conditions of her own apartment and her lifestyle, it’s a gut check that hits her hard. Each beat in Rebecca’s journey is fairly obvious, but Palmer adds some layers where none really existed.
Maria Bello‘s take on Sophie presents her as troubled, tormented and mysterious. While Rebecca has to face the reality that this entity exists, creepily, Sophie has already been well aware of this for many years.
Rebecca’s boyfriend, Bret (Alexander DiPersia), is essentially there to give Rebecca someone to bounce her troubles off of. He always seems to be there, whether she wants him to or not, so she can talk about what’s going on. He never rushes in to save the day – he can’t do that – because that would take away from Rebecca’s journey. We don’t get much of his backstory. So he ends up being pretty one-dimensional.
There are a couple of decent jump-scares in the film, some creepy and moody moments. Perhaps this is a good introduction to someone younger who is just starting to watch horror movies. But for the rest of us, we can tell this one is playing it safe.
Grade: C+
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