It is a fantastic premise on which to build the scares and the opening scenes and early moments show that all too well. It is a shame then that the framing story is nonsensical and the connection to the family being terrorised poorly developed - the film would have been far better leaving its villain a mysterious threat. It doesn't help that the ground rules and internal logic laid out by the film is often circumvented to fit the needs of the story and the effective and creepy opening setup devolves into standard fare by the final act. It's no surprise to discover this was based on a short - perhaps thats how it should have remained.
It wasn't the best movie ever but it did keep me in suspense all throughout the movie so I'll give it props for that.
As a lot of other people have mentioned there's a lot missing. Why Diana is doing what she is doing is not really explained at all, which is a big problem.
The acting was pretty good though.
I did enjoy the original short film but the way it turned out as a full lengh movie did not quite reach my expectations.
By no means a bad movie though.
This movie, like many horror films like it, rely heavily on concept rather than writing. It's true, the concept of a spirit that you can only see when you turn off the lights is perfect. We often saw questionable shapes in the night as children, and our mind would then create more disturbing imagery after that. It's only fair that a movie would attempt to do the same thing, but when you rely more heavily on concept, you lose track something important: depth and reason.
Simple scares are easy, but they aren't quite enough anymore. We need a reason to latch onto something in order to understand what we're watching...and to discuss it after viewing as well. To put it lightly - the spirit in this film didn't seem to have a real reason to be as violent as it was. I could probably list off more reasons for it not to be violent. I personally wanted to know why it was so angry at these specific individuals, and I couldn't really find anything. I did understand that it was vengeful for another reason - but without spoiling anything - there is a valid point as to why it shouldn't have ever felt threatened by this family. So I'm a little lost.
All in all, it felt like a movie that drew its strength from the premise and little else. The acting in the film wasn't so bad, in fact the boy's acting was quite impressive for what it's worth...which isn't a whole lot. It's not a terrible movie by any means, in fact I quite enjoyed the premise. I just wish it had a little more backbone and depth when it came to the writing of the characters. That being said, if you are a fan of horror movies - you should check out the movie. You might love it. You might not, but...who am I to judge?
Could be better, nice movie to watch if you're bored. It's not really scary, but still manages to keep you on the edge somehow.
A very unique twist on a classic horror movie. Unusual plot line but serves a good basis for a story. Worth a watch for horror fans.
Another movie with nothing but jump scares. This doesn't even come close to the three minute short that it's based on. It's not scary and the origin of the ghostly "Diana" was incredibly lame. The boy who plays the son is awful but I'm giving an extra half star because Teresa Palmer does a good job of acting terrified.
Damn, that was slick!
I'm actually quite confused by the low ratings for this movie. What's inherently wrong with it? The biggest complaints I've heard against this was it's repetitive nature and reliance on jumpscares, and I'm going to have to disagree. It may have a little reliance on some horror cliches and the concept of a demonic being only being able to survive in darkness (unable to go into the light), but the way David F. Sandberg executes this concept is what makes this movie stand out. Why is no one talking about the brilliant scene with the cop firing at Diane, and each time the muzzle-flash goes off, Diane disappears for a fraction of a second. That was incredibly creative, and absolute badass film-making. Compared to some other horror films to come out in the past few years, I actually find this one to be more inventive and original than it's counter-parts. You want to talk about cliche? Go look at the incredibly over-praised The Conjuring. That movie has every single horror cliche in the book. You have an exorcism, a house with a demon in it, kids being terrorized, a mother getting possessed, etc. But in Lights Out, while there is a kind of "demon" haunting a family and some standard fare of walking around dark corridors, what transpires in the events are quite awesome. Also, the "demon," Diane, doesn't just lurk in the house, it follows anyone who's attached to the mother. But anyways, in one great scene, the boyfriend, Bret, is running out of the house down to his car at the end of the drive-way, he runs under a dark archway for a second and Diane manages to grab him quickly and lift him up in the air. He then grabs his car keys and unlocks the door, turning the headlights on and vanishing Diane, causing Bret to fall to the ground. Sandberg manages to take a already done idea and make it really fresh and a ton of fun. There is some darker moments in the story, particularly towards the end, and the movie plays out more as a drama, but there's plenty of shit happening to keep it engaging. I'm glad they didn't kill the boyfriend and there was no final scare. That's something I'm getting sick of in newer horror installments. This is easily Sandberg's best movie yet. He managed to take his short film and make it something awesome.
SPOILERS
For those taking this movie incredibly seriously and saying it has a bad message about killing yourself if there's a monster controlling you, let me tell you something:
Fuck off. This is a fucking horror movie. Looking for morals in something like this is legitimately autistic.
Teresa Palmer is soooo beautiful
The story is a bit messy and doesn't come together.
Especially the connection between Diana and the mother
I liked the darkness mechanism of Diana and the suspens around it.
This isn't the horror movie of the year but it's still pretty enjoyable.
A good idea, to do a horror movie based on the contrast of light and dark, but very, very poorly executed. I watched this with the lights out, headphones on, all alone at home, and could barely feel a thing. Such wasted potential.
good concept, just could've been executed better. I thought the short film was great. I watched this because I was hoping for more
Light's Out is a 2016 horror thriller which as the name suggests is dark, unsettling, and intense. With an 81 minutes runtime, Sandberg loads us with horrific visuals which is definitely going to make you shivery. The entire movie is mindfully shot, sharply edited, and has performances matching the technical aspects. Teresa Palmer and Gabriel Bateman stand out.
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Teresa Palmer became.one.of.my favorite actress. Every movie with her is a discovery.
A solidly tense horror movie. Best enjoyed at a superficial level, as the plot doesn't quite hang together, as others have mentioned. Great cast, who sell the hell out of the plot, such as it is.
A bit stretched, but it's watchable. The screenwriter could only work better on the origin of the antagonist.
Predictable. It's curious because is focused in the fear of darkness, but it just frighten with heavy noisy moments. Mediocre cast except of the mother.
One of the movies where I was afraid while watching it. In general the story and how the people behaved after having encountered this evil spirit is weird (as with every horror movie), but the story in general is interesting enough. The horror scenes were well made and sometimes actually scared me, even though I knew what would happen.
30 minutes in and I'm writing this ... bored, will watch to the end just to punish myself for watching it this far.
I saw it a few days ago and I don't think it's that scary, but it's entertaining and some parts are (unintentionally?) funny.
I think this film gets its porpoise, it's not as original as I expected considering the short it is based, the "final scene" is not its best, maybe another horror movie
Yet another film that relies on heavy blasts of music to scare the audience. Good performances are lost in a tale that is ultimately predictable and cliched. Review out.
Amazing debut from David Sandberg!! There is another genious for horror movies. Thanks James Wan!
To me it was an okay-ish horror movie. They could've put more thoughts into the background story, but overall it was entertaining and had a few really creepy moments. A few people didn't seem to like the ending - to me it was only logical and I liked it. Going to bed with a night light now.. ;)
After watching a lot of horror movies, they don't really scare me so much anymore. Neither did this one.... until after the movie when I got home. I went to take out clothes from washing machine in the middle of a night. And when I turned on the light it flickers a little, and I got cold shiver through my spine. And after I'm done with the clothes I had to walk through dark rooms to get to my room, and it always felt like there is going to be someone behind me or there would be a hand that would touch me....
So it was a good movie, especially if you are afraid of the dark. I can promise you this movie won't make it better. It will creep in to you subconscious when it is dark and you are aline. And the ending was kinda unexpected and "real". So I would recommend thsi move, to anyone who likes horror movies.
Good movie, horror and some funny scenes.
This movie was okay, it wasn't too frightening to me.
probably one of the scariest movies I have seen to date!
So the audience in the theatre really ruined this film for me. They screamed at parts that weren't all that scary, hyping themselves into being scared. That said, parts of the movie were generally quite frightening, but there was also some comedy mixed in. The pacing was not great--as soon as they discover the threat they kinda go straight into investigating its background, but the movie had a really good ending and some likeable characters. And the CG wasn't that bad either. 6.8/10.
most of the horror films that came out don't scare me (just like the classic ones: the ring or the grunge) and i thought i can't be scared more than i was during conjuring but i was wrong i was so wrong
this is one of the best horror films i've seen and if you want to be scared to death and see a nice written story too then i surely recomend
scary. real horror. good story. but end is little bit stupid for me sorry not sorry 7 stars.
More suspenseful / thrilling than horror. Not many horror aspects. Once you learned the story, then everything fell through horror wise but the suspenseful parts kept me on the seat until the end. Couldn’t been so much better but don’t expect much if you want to see a horror movie. Still worth a watch if you are bored.
This was done really well. It had a lot of good scenes that will make you jump. I’m looking forward to watching part 2 next.
Produced by master of horror James Wan, Lights Out is a terrifying thriller that preys on our primal fear of the dark. The story follows a young woman named Rebecca who attempts to rescue her brother from their mother when she goes off her medication and becomes schizophrenic, talking to an imaginary friend who lives in the dark; but when Rebecca is attacked in her apartment she begins to suspect that her mother’s friend may be real. Teresa Palmer gives an impressive performance, and director David F. Sandberg does an excellent job at building tension and suspense. The cinematography is also especially good, effectively making use of light, shadow, and darkness. Delivering some intense and frightening scares, Lights Out is a well-crafted horror film.
Generally I don't care for ghost movies but I liked this one. Much better than I expected.
Not bad really! Short, concise, straight to the point. nothing fancy. Gives you enough story.
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Another forgettable mainly jumpscares horror film that has a cool concept but feels terribly hollow. It doesn't do anything more than any garbage mainstream horror films and it feels so cheap with horrible acting, corny dialogues and terrible editing. Rebecca and the kid performance is laughable. The ghost backstory doesn't make any sense. How they handle the monster thing which in this case is an allegory for mental illness is problematic. There are many excellent horror films that explore mental illness.
The movie was okay but not scary or frightened no thrilling also
Could have been a really great movie, but it was really predictable
Needed to be longer. There are many questions and no answers. I feel that this movie would have been perfect with more development! I loved how soon everything kicked off but at the same time it felt rushed and too sudden which again would have been fine had there been more development with the backstory and characters. I love a great movie where we get a ton of information that we can piece together little by little throughout the story and arrive the the "big picture" at the end. And speaking of the end, I actually enjoyed it, I expected it to happen but didn't expect it to happen the way it did. It did make me a bit emotional as I understand depression and how the mind can be too much to deal with at times. So for me it was a good watch!
Pretty good... And it probably won't scare you too much but I would like to see some of the people who watched this turning the lights out now for a while.
The movie trailer gave away all the jump scares sigh. Do not watch the trailer before watching this movie.
Well.. i didn't turn the lights out on this one, it hooked me, it wasn't a bad horror.. was a little rush on the story thought.. i wasn't scared.. never am.. horrors are getting more predictable.. but it was funny to see my friend lizzie.. shit herself through the whole film.. ha
well, good movie, really scary, but the story just won't get with the movie style, I give a 7/10 rate, but almost because of the scary parts
does not make you waste time, entertains and well, a student of James Wan
An interesting idea from a short film has been given the hollywood treatment but thankfully stays faithful to the spirit of the original. I liked the flashbacks and the use of sound effects to keep things scary. Overall, the acting was solid as was the first time directing for the same maker of the short film. It ticked all the usual horror film boxes, but didn't ruin them. Well done to all involved for keeping it short, simple and to the point. Go see it, you wan't be disappointed. 6.5/10
Shadows in Lights Out
will surround you in the night
One must fight with light
#HorrorHaikuesday
Shout by VassilisVIP 10BlockedParent2016-10-05T18:33:00Z
Bad horror movie without the horror, avoid there is nothing to see here don't waste your time