Lights out

Cast: Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander Dipersia, Billy Burke, Maria Bello and Rolondo Boyce.

Director: David F. Sandberg

Release Date: 2016

Running Time: 1hr 17 minutes

Genre: Horror

Rating: PG-13

Synopsis:

Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) must unlock the terror behind her little brothers supernatural experiences that once tested her sanity, bringing her face to face with an entity that is attached to their mother.

The thing that drew me the most to this film was the trailer, I'm not the biggest fan of horror movies, not because they scare me, but because I think it takes some serious craftsmanship to actually get it right. Billy Burke stars in this movie, you may recognize him from "Red Riding Hood" and the "Twilight" saga. On first impressions this movie is pretty creepy, immediately you witness something pretty scary. I love that despite seeing something you don't know what the heck it is. It's pretty scary.

This isn't your typical horror movie, don't expect any gore as such. This movie does rely on jump scares quite a bit though, which is a bit annoying, it's rather predictable. The main characters aren't really that great, they aren't the best actors in the world. Teresa Palmer doesn't do a bad job, as Rebecca, Martin's older sister, you might recognize her from "I am Number 4" she's certainly not the best actress in the world. She doesn't show a great deal of characterization.

The storyline makes sense, but at the same time it doesn't. Your lead to believe one thing, when really the complete opposite is actually happening. Diana is not who she says she is. Her character is extremely interesting though and very very creepy. I did honestly think this was going to be a lot scarier judging by the trailer though, as I mentioned before it was the trailer that drew me towards the film. The special effects aren't amazing, but they are still pretty good, it makes the scene work if you get what I mean?

There isn't really much of a soundtrack, therefor the movie doesn't allow much suspense, you don't really have a chance to get frightened, despite most of the film being shot in the dark, it still doesn't allow for much fear and suspense, even though you can deeply see that's what the director was hoping for. I'm not entirely sure what this film is missing, it's partly the storyline I think and partly the fact that this movie is very shot at just 1hr 17 minutes. I respect it was based on a short movie by the same name, but I think filmmakers could have done an amazing job with this movie, if they had made it much longer and gone into a lot more detail about the characters, especially as some pretty important bits are mentioned briefly through out the film.

Personally this didn't scare me at all, In some sense I love to be scared by a horror movie, it means the director has done a damn good job, as it should be his intention to disturb/scare/frighten people. Not for you to come away thinking what the heck just happened you know? I'm honestly quite dissapointed in this film. I was definitely expecting a lot more from it.

I wouldn't really recommend this film, perhaps if your really into your horror movies and you are scared easily.

I liked it.

2/5 stars