It's a simple enough movie. Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) is a 20-something girl with Avenged Sevenfold posters in her apartment (She's edgy). She has a boyfriend, Bret (Alexander DiPersia) who she refuses to admit she's in a relationship with. She has a mother, Sophie (Maria Bello) who she tries not to deal with even though she has a young brother, Martin (Gabriel Bateman), who she cares deeply about. Rebecca is pulled back into her mother's life after Martin gets in trouble at school for sleeping. Martin isn't sleeping because at night, there's a woman he sees in the darkness who terrifies him, but his mother doesn't seem to mind the woman. Both children start seeing the woman more and realize that she disappears in the light. That's about as much as I can say before spoiling the story, but, needless to say, the woman wants to hurt people.
There's a lot of things the film does right. For one, it's short. That's great for horror. The longer the movie, the harder it is to stay scary. This is a clever idea too: an evil woman who can only move in the dark. It plays on some primal fears and makes for a great movie trailer. When the movie is just about what happens to characters in the shadows, it's genuinely scary and director David. F. Sandberg is most engaged there. A smaller note that I loved, which is maybe a slight spoiler, is that the mother has legitimate mental problems. Most movies like this would have Bello's character's time in the mental hospital be the caused by the dark woman. Nope. She has problems with depression (possibly more) before anything with this dark woman. She's not magically cured at the end by getting the dark lady to go away.
Sadly, I had more problems with the film than things that I liked. It doesn't trust the audience at all, which annoyed me. For example, if there's a bunch of stuff clearly written on the wall, you don't have to have a character read it out loud. I really have issue with sensible characters being really stupid. I get that when someone is surprised or in a panic, it's hard to think straight, but when you've had hours to plan, you shouldn't be forgetting things like cranking a flashlight when it's the only thing keeping you alive. Things like that take me out of the movie. It's lazy, plot-driving thinking. It's doesn't feel like the screenwriter wrote himself into any corners that he had to work to get out of ("Event X happens because I want event Y to happen", not "Event X happens because it makes sense for the character"). I also had some major questions about the rules of this universe. It seems like the limitations on the dark woman change depending on what works best for a specific scene. Does she only appear in the darkness or is she hiding from the darkness? It switches throughout the film.
I'm not the best audience for this, and I accept that. People get different things out of movies and that's especially true with horror movies. A lot of the problems that I immediately zeroed in on are things that don't matter at all to others. For anyone looking to be scared and surprised, there's a lot to enjoy in Lights Out. Maria Bello's performance is very solid and the story moves at a decent pace. If you are the type of person who is going to pick at the details, avoid this. If you are just looking for some decent scares, turn off the lights and enjoy.
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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