Lights Out (2016)

User Review

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  TheMovieDiorama

  7 / 10

  A horror movie that is not actually a sequel (surprisingly), Lights Out is about a family who are experiencing a supernatural presence that can only stay in the dark as they go through a difficult time in their lives. I remember when the initial trailer came out and everyone's minds were blown, a horror movie that looks refreshing and scary. Is it both of those things? For the most part yes. Lights Out was actually legitimately unnerving mostly due to the refreshing gimmick it uses: keep the lights on. It was a clever move to use the fear of darkness and turn it up to the maximum level of "good luck getting any sleep for the next 2 weeks!". But even more clever and surprising was that it was a horror movie with great acting and a good story. Teresa Palmer and Maria Bello are probably the more famous actresses in the movie, and they were convincing (especially Palmer, finally a film she can actually show some emotion). Heck, even the on-screen boyfriend had depth and was likeable...that never happens in horror movies. The story between mother and daughter and the sorrow and anger they both feel due to past incidents was conveyed excellently, makes the characters much more investing and relatable. Sure, the creepy ghost girl is creepy and the darkness is dark and the jump scares were jumpy...but the movie was so much better due to the acting. The lighting in this movie was consistently appropriate, not too dark you cannot see anything and not too bright that it loses the atmosphere. The only flaws with this film were that it was ridiculously short, at 1 hour 21 minutes this was close to being straight to home media. They could easily have prolonged the chemistry of the family or added in some more fresh gimmicks and the film would've actually benefited from it. Some key plot points of the film were predictable, but it's very rare to see horror film that is unpredictable so this was to be expected. Overall, Lights Out was a refreshing horror movie with a fresh gimmick and quality acting even if the runtime is ridiculously short.

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