Lights Out finds big scares in the dark

Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg makes an impressive feature debut with this spooky, less-is-more expansion of his short that landed him this first Hollywood gig. But what Palmer brings to the film are her large, luminous eyes, which Sandberg highlights with pin lights as a visual focal point within the frame, and glow with an otherworldly fire in the beam of a blacklight. Upon making eye contact with her, I would feel an huge pressure on my chest, unable to move my extremities as she spider-walked closer to my bedside. Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) is a young woman determined to live alone; her mother Sophie (Maria Bello) has been troubled for Rebecca’s entire life, even doing a stint in a mental institution when she was younger. Another nitpicky issue is that once the rules of Diana are established – that she lives in darkness – characters seem to ignore those facts when even simply entering a room. Wanting her friend Sophia back, Diana goes on a rampage to ensure that Sophia continues to suffer from depression and remains her friend. There’s security and comfort in being able to see your surroundings, which makes the premise of David Sandberg’s Lights Out even more terrifying. Much of the thrills involve what we can’t see, and Lights Out does a lovely job of allowing the audience to imagine some evil, capering thing in the dark corners just beyond our vision. I could feel her gnarled hands pushing down on the mattress to pull herself up – her fetid breath on my neck. Turn the lights off, however, and Diana will be there – one step closer. Now the pesky apparition just wants to hang out in the shadows at Sophie’s big ol’ house and scare the shit out of her kid.

She’s already haunted one woman for years. It’s a foreshadowing of what will happen to Martin if he can’t get away from the horror. Unlike Jean, Sandberg got to direct the feature based on his short, and he didn’t have to cast Adam Sandler in the lead role. When Diana scratches the floor, knocks on a door, scampers up the stairs, or tears up a rug, the sound keeps her separate, bouncing around from all sides, further complimented by Vela-Bailey’s eerie, wordless performance.

On the whole, with good editing, and trademark James Wan techniques of building up anxiety and good usage of light, the film definitely does manage to raise the hair on your neck when needed.

Everyone is afraid of the dark and that is what she feeds on.

A small, pitch-black treat, “Lights Out” takes a common childhood terror and uses it to spin a horror story with a new kind of ghost and some familiar, but still effective shocks. The houselights in the theater were raised and she was gone.