Lights Out

Year: 2016
Genre: Horror
Directed: David F. Sandberg
Stars: Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia, Billy Burke, Maria Bello, Rolando Boyce, Ava Cantrell, Ariel Dupin, Lotta Losten, Andi Osho, Maria Russell, Alicia Vela-Bailey
Production: New Line Cinema

Lights Out is a horror film based on a video short written and directed by David F. Sandberg. In the film a family is stalked by a ghostly entity seemingly made real and deadly by the deteriorating state of mind of the family's matriarch (Bello). In desperation, the young son, Martin (Bateman) recruits the help of his long absent half-sister in order to simultaneously save their mother from madness and put an end to the specter dubbed Diana.

The film is a compendium of cliches all sprouting out of the haunted house genre complete with jump scares and a bad case of BDS (Bad-Decision Syndrome). What makes Lights Out a cut above some of this year's lesser horror flicks is it's ghost or rather the rules in which it functions and operates. Unlike other specters that creep into the dark recesses turning over candles and books, this little nasty can come out and grab you though only under the cover of shadow and darkness.

Under such restraints (or excess depending on your disposition) the film succeeds in snatching a few choice scares from its audience. Gabriel Bateman does a commendable job as the scared but sincere pre-teen whose nights have been haunted by her mothers "friend". Maria Bello is equally solid performing the thankless, uphill bromide that is the over-broad psychotic who is just barely keeping together. I feel like it's become a sadly common trope to have talented actresses no longer "in their prime" make appearances in horror movies as the plucky haunting victim or the brittle waif turned bloodthirsty doppelganger. One need only go back to the recent The Babadook (2014) to see what I mean.

Teresa Palmer and Alexander DiPersia fair poorly however as the main protagonist and permanently sidelined boyfriend. DiPersia, while proving at various times to be resourceful as a character, can't help but feel like an out-of-place amateur among actual actors. Palmer has the opposite problem; she can act but the story gives her little to do but change the curvature of her brow from one of fright or one of indignation. We get very little in the story to get us into the character's head space. There's animus between mother and daughter but we never really know why; there's a reluctance to closeness but we never know why; there's an Avenge Sevenfold poster in her apartment, but we never know dear God, why!

Yet the million dollar question at the end o the day is, does this film work as a horror film? In other words, does it scare? Yes it does. Sure it's not as intellectually stimulating as The Witch (2015) and sure it's littered with cliches. There are a few indulgences of modern horror that can be irksome: unearned jump scares, a stentorian score and a third act that paints itself in such a corner that it literally writes plot reveals on the wall. Yet Lights Out ultimately works. It slides by on its creativity, its economy and moments that are not just spooky but heart-in-your-chest level scary.

Final Grade: C