9 Days Late. Lights Out

01/31 Movies for October

10/01/2017

Lights Out

Story: 2

Plot: 2

Theme: 4

Acting: 3

Overall: 2.75

I remember watching the YouTube short a long while back and thinking how brilliant it was and how it kept me looking in my shadows for days after seeing the film. This movie did a good job of driving out those same paranoid feelings.

Lets start at the beginning like always. The story. Lights up on an unsuspecting kid(Gabriel Bateman) getting ready for his daily rest. But something strange happens when he lays down for bed. Noises outside his door prompt him to get up and creep out to check the scene. “Mom?” ( I love when kids leave their safe zone and ask for their parents, it’s so real to what they would probably do. I know I have done the same things in the past when I was scared or worried). He walks into his moms room and asks if everything is fine she (played by Maria Bello) then replies “ We are okay.” This noticeably makes the kid uneasy. He asks “We?” The camera pans to show an unlit closet where the supposed other person should be standing. LIGHTS OUT.

Love the beginning. It takes a weird transition into revealing the step-sister played by Tereasa Palmer and her interesting looking boyfriend? Alexander DiPersia. A day goes by and Rebecca (Palmer) gets called into Martin’s (Bateman) school because they can’t reach the mother and he seems to be sleeping during school more frequently as the days pass. This doesn’t really alarm Rebecca until she drops by the mothers house to grab some overnight clothes and he mentions their mothers friend Diana who has been keeping him up at nights. A flashback, and some stern talking to, reveals Diana had caused trouble in the mothers past and potentially led to Rebecca’s father to leave them. That night Rebecca is awoken by some nasty scratching she thinks is her brother. As she rubs sleep from her eyes and the ever blinking tattoo sign outside her apartment flashes on and off she see’s a humanoid creature tearing at her floor. It lunges for her and disappears at the next lighting by the sign. After child services comes to take Martin back to their mothers house Rebecca decides to take measures in her own hands and treks over to the house to do some needed detective work. Her and Brad (DiPersia) make out with some juicy details on the moms past and her supposed friend Diana. The mom spent years in a mental institution along with a “very unique” girl named Diana who was born with a rare skin disorder affected by light. She died within a year of the mother being in the institute. This is when things get… well…meh. The idea is cool but it seemed too easy to find all that info so fast. It would have been interesting if they made a trip to the place and found the records there or interviewed people who used to work there to find more details but alas they chose a shorter script and cut out what could have been some great shots and creepy people. The next half hour or so is what you’d expect out of every movie like this. The kids get trapped, someone tries to help(DiPersia) and the mother is incapacitated. The creature formally known as Diana was creepy and I LOVED that they didn’t show any part of her BUT love in a horror movie only lasts so long. Magically when looking for things to arm themselves with while trapped in the basement Martin finds a battery powered blacklight tube (which I have never heard of and if it’s real I want one) and they use it to look for clues. (I think to myself…hmmm. Maybe since it’s a different spectrum of light this creature/demon/thing might not be effected by it OH and shit I forgot to mention. The Diana thing, it can’t move in the light. Only in the dark or in shadows. Don’t ask me why Incandescent light bulbs effect this thing because I DON’T KNOW…. It doesn’t make sense to me either.) While looking BAM Diana pops out and we see her ugly melting face and I don’t like the creature anymore. LIKE COME ON PEOPLE STOP SHOWING IT. OUR IMAGINATIONS ARE POWERFUL ENOUGH, LET US DECIDE WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. Anyways, lets jump forward to the part where Brad pulls Martin from the house while Rebecca tries to save the mom for her little brother. Things get intense. Rebecca is thrown(by Diana) over the railing on the second floor, falling at least 13 ft onto her stomach. As she stumbles up Diana appears behind her and tosses her body against the wall further hurting the girl. Right before we think she’s going to kill her The mother pulls a gun on Diana (something which a police officer tried and failed at earlier and is now dead because of it) and threatens her for harming her children. “You can’t hurt me with that thing” says the Diana, “No, this won’t do anything to you but it can kill me and you’re nothing without me. You’re dead.” BAM. The bitch blows her brains out and Diana sizzles into the ether. All is well. Except now Martin and Rebecca don’t have any parents and for some reason when they are sitting in the ambulance getting patched up the lights flicker a few times. Sequel? I hope not.