LIGHTS OUT (2016)

Directed by David F. Sandberg, Starring: Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Maria Bello. Horror, US, 2016, 78mins, Cert 15.

“Ghosts aren’t real”- “Then what is she?”

When the lights are on, there’s nobody home...

David F. Sandberg’s 2013 short film competition entry went (deservedly) viral on YouTube. Within its 2 ½ minute running time it succinctly encapsulated and distilled the very essence of being afraid of the dark. A supernatural silhouette appears at the end of a hallway every time the occupant switches off the hallway light. There’s two punchily effective jump scares and it’s over: job (well) done.

Having been invited by producer James (all things that go bump in the night) Wan to direct an expanded feature based on his short, Sandberg delivers a visually slick piece of lightweight multiplex spookery, but fails to conjure up anything more than run of the mill chills from a script that combines THE BABADOOK with DARKNESS FALLS with incrementally diminishing returns.

In this unsuccessful endeavour Sandberg is hampered by a script which on the one hand seems obliged to crank out expositional ingredients by the numbers yet never satisfactorily explains away how the entity, known as ‘Diana’, haunts the shadowy recesses of creaking cupboards and under lit interiors.

Teresa Palmer (Rebecca) older sister of Martin (Gabriel Bateman) generate some sympathy when they’re lured into a trap in the basement with only a UV glow stick and a torch to defend themselves. Maria Bello as their manically depressed and under-medicated mother spends most of the running time either unconscious or oblivious to the harm she’s exposing her (remaining) family to by entertaining her ‘friend’.

Despite it’s relatively short running time, you do get a decent ration of scare set-ups for your buck - rarely do you have to wait more than a couple of minutes for the next ‘BOO!’ moment – even if they’re only occasionally effective (the use of a flashing neon sign outside Rebecca’s apartment being a rare moment of inspiration).

But ultimately the more contrived instances of lights out in LIGHTS OUT, the less the scares register, and the fade out to credits is decidedly underwhelming. Watching the deleted scenes on the disc, there’s an alternate coda sequence which concludes proceedings far more satisfactorily – and I can only assume it was dropped in order to implausibly green-light LIGHTS OUT 2 (although where the filmmakers go from here is something I can’t shine any illumination on).

**(out of 5*)

Paul Worts