REVIEW: Lights Out
The movie Lights Out is a horror movie that brings back childhood fears and dreams that had you on the edge of your bed when you were younger. The movie was initially released on July 22, 2016, and was directed by David F. Sandberg, and it’s writers were Eric Heisserer and David F. Sandberg. It received mostly positive reviews and a 76% fresh Rotten Tomato rating. It grossed a total of 148.9 million dollars in opposition to the 4.9 million dollar budget. The movie is a perfect blend of what a smart and clever horror movie should be like and it brings out everyone’s childhood fear of monsters and nightmares.
The movie is about the terrifying and unexplained occurrences happening to Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) and her family as a result of an “imaginary friend” her mentally ill mother Sophie (Maria Bello) sees. Rebecca left her home and thought to have left her childhood fears behind, when she was younger she would always be unsure if what she saw when the lights went out were real or not. After realizing that her brother Martin (Gabriel Bateman) is undergoing and seeing the same entity/monster that she would see when she was younger, she is forced to face her childhood fear that once caused her to test her sanity and leave her home. With the help of her brother and boyfriend Bret (Alexander DiPersia), she finally unravels the truth behind all the strange occurrences and finds out the history of the dangerous entity attached to her mother.
The film's main characters included Teresa Palmer as Rebecca, Maria Bello as Sophie, Gabriel Bateman as Martin, Alexander DiPersia as Bret, and both Alicia Vela-Bailey and Ava Cantrell as Diana. The acting in the movie was adequate and made it seem as if they were truly scared of the unknown entity attacking them. The way the main characters dressed was appropriate to the setting (which takes place in modern times) and matched with their personality.
Although the horror flick Lights Out didn't win many awards besides the Palm Springs International Film Festival Directors to Watch Award, many students here at Airport High School agree and consider the movie to be a great and decent horror movie that delivers plenty of jump scares.
MaKayla L., a freshman here at Airport High School said, “ I really enjoyed the movie, it was a good movie with a simple plot that was full of suspense and horror.” To MaKayla, the use and “twist” to the stereotypical “monster” made her “enjoy it even more.”
Quayjana M., also a freshman here at Airport High School, stated that the movie was a great “thriller” and that it had many moments in which “it would jump scare [her]”.
The movie Lights Out is a perfect example of a classical horror movie that is not too repetitive and that takes an old tradition (of kids being scared to turn the lights off because of a monster) and turns it into a new, fresh and clever film. It had strong actors and directors who did a terrific job in delivering a suspenseful horror movie of a new type. In my opinion, I would give Lights Out a 9/10 star rating because although it is a great strong movie with a clear and simple plot, it is not entirely perfect. The only problem with the movie was that it was often sometimes predictable which caused some of the scares to not be as scary as it probably should have been.
Lights Out was released on DVD and Blu-Ray October 25, 2016. It is available for rent and purchase on Amazon, Redbox, iTunes, and Vudu.