2016 has been a great year for first time directors. Earlier this year, Dan Trachtenberg brought us the brilliant, suspenseful thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane (whilst the ending of the film is debateable, the rest of it was an amazing, character driven piece), Tim Miller delivered the goods with a certain potty-mouthed anti-hero which grossed north of $700 million worldwide and Ilya Naishuller directed the superb Hardcore Henry which was vastly underseen (go out and buy the Blu-Ray, seriously. You've never seen Sharlto Copley quite like this and it was the most fun I've had in at the movies since Mad Max: Fury Road). I'm pleased to say that Lights Out director, David F. Sandberg joins this mob of directors and has brought us an excellent, tense and thriller film with Lights Out.
The film follows Rebecca (played the beautiful Australian actress Teresa Palmer) and Martin (played by the excellent Gabriel Bateman) attempting to understand why a demon keeps pursuing them and to get to the bottom of their mother, Sophie's (Maria Bello) depression. The film does a great job of delving into the dangers of depression whilst also delivering some genuinely creepy scares. I've seen quite a few horror films and can confidently say this this film features one of the most frightening ghosts in a long time. To be fair, the trailers made the film look like your everyday, generic ghost story, but Lights Out uses the ghost as a metaphor showing the audience the type of darkness that can manifest within the mind of someone dealing with depression.
The cast are all excellent, with Teresa Palmer and Gabriel Batman getting the lion's share of screentime. Bateman in particular is an excellent child actor - after last years "Room", it's tough to beat Jacob Tremblay but Bateman comes close. Sandberg frames the film pretty well, utilising the genre tropes to maximum effect. That being said, it is obvious that James Wan has had quite an influence with this film. Being the Producer of the film, there are signature Wan techniques such as creating a tension filled atmosphere and the excellent use of lighting.
However, the premise of the film is confusing at times. The rules created within the film are that the ghost, known as Diana, cannot appear in light (it is revealed later during the film that when she was alive she suffered from a rare skin condition which made her extremely sensitive to light). During some moments, there are scenes where she appears within barely lit rooms or lights are illuminating her. It begs the question, at what point is it too dark for her to appear? This might be a minor gripe, but the film plays a little too fast and loose with the premise.
Another downside is one of the genre tropes - where horror film characters continually make illogical decisions. As I said before, Sandberg uses the tropes well, but this is a negative trope which is hated in most horror films. For example, characters are constantly wandering into dark rooms without turning lights on, knowing full well that there is a spectre out to get them or, as another example, when a character gets trapped in a room and her only source of light is out, she doesn't attempt to open the curtains (it is established that it is daytime). Little things like these are minor annoyances in an otherwise excellent film.
Lights Out is a brilliant little horror film which may be overshadowed by the bigger horror film on the block this year (The Conjuring 2). However, this is a horror film with a message and some genuine scares with terrific performances. I give Lights Out a 7/10.
Let me know what you think below! :)