Monsters of the Dark are back..!!. Review on Lights Out

This scary movie is produced by James Wan(The Conjuring, Insidious), so this makes the movie directly go down on my weekend movies-to-watch. The debutant Director David Sandberg is here with an extended script of his small movie of 2-minutes, now extended into 80-minutes, to scare some real soul out of your body.

This movie reminded me of 90s show Children of the Dark and somehow it became a calling for me to watch this flick. The movie is about a monster in the dark, lights on it disappears and lights out it becomes real, very real. This idea is made aware in first 5-minutes into the movie. We see a lady walking around in a shady warehouse with strung-up mannequins in the background. Something automatically switches the lights off, then she sees something or someone in the dark, flips the light on and the apparition disappears. Maybe it’s her hallucination, as she thinks. Then lights off and the figure in the dark starts moving towards her. A few minutes later her boss Paul(Billy Burke) is found dead.

This leaves us with his family consisting of his stepdaughter Rebecca(Teresa Palmer), his mentally-ill widow Sophie(Maria Bello) and his little grade-school jittery son Martin(Gabriel Bateman). There’s a dark creature lurking in the shadows talking to a family member, but it’s not her son, but his mother Sophie. The creepy-reversal in the story. Martin is really terrified of his mother and couldn’t sleep at night due to scraping sound from the hall. Due to this the school nurse asks Rebecca to visit Martin’s school and he tells Rebecca what’s been bothering her. She remembers her own experience and offers him to stay with her in a goth bachelorette apartment above a tattoo shop where she lives with her boyfriend Bret(Alexander DiPersia), at arm’s length.

The movie does spend time in bringing out the connection between Sophia and Diana(the darkness monster), and that takes away the thrill from the scenes where we actually get to see what the spirit is capable of. Lights Out is like any other haunted movie, but more towards Asian haunted movies like The Grudge or The Ring. It is has typical few James Wan camera panning and background score, where it makes you sit on the edge. Especially the last half an hour can make your hair on the nape stand.(not giving any spoilers)

Under 80-minutes, this flick makes you turn in your seat, sweat at the horror and heart race at jump scares. This movie ends satisfyingly, not leaving any loose ends for a sequel(sad face) but maybe good things should not be stretched much.

Teresa Palmer is amazing as a stepdaughter and step-sister, doesn’t go overboard like a scream queen or steely warrior, kept it realistic. Young Gabriel, acts according to his role, looks palpable and totally convincing. And most amusing of all is DiPersia, not-so-bright character, whose relationship with Rebecca colours the movie with bit of warm shades and not just the dark horror. It’s a proof that Sandberg values all the reactions equally.

Watch this new director bring out his box of horror, big screen scares you better.