Lights out - a review

A young woman gets a call for help from her younger brother. He’s afraid to sleep in his own house due to the strange friend her mother seems to be keeping. As she cares for the boy she soon learns that there is something lurking in the shadows.

Lights out - or jump scare the movie would’ve been a better title. I don't mind a jump scare every once in a while. But a movie full of them is a bit much. What's wrong with some good ol' fashioned suspense? You don't have to end every single momentum with a 'Boo!'-moment.

The jump scares makes it practically unwatchable because every time I suspect one my eyes are on the ceiling. Basically this movie is one long series of jump scares with a smallest of plot to fill in the gaps. Lights out is a troubled movie.

The story.

Even though the final solution is quite an interesting take (though it has been done several times before) the story is one of the most basic ghost-stories around.  So basic even that you are actually left with the notion that from all those movies that had the same story before this one which actually tried to 'play around' with the tropes/clichés. After Lights out all those movies got better in retrospect.

But I guess this movie knew this because the whole mystery is handed over to the viewer around 45 minutes in. This movie is all 'cards on the table'. You even get to see the monster within the first five minutes which (to me at least) was a bit of a head scratching moment. It's a balance question. You might not want to copy those numerous movies before that hold off showing the monster until the hour mark. But at the same time it isn't advisable to throw your trump card down the first.

The light effects, however, are brilliant. It truly is fun to see a ghost disappear when the light goes on. And with that the movie does make maximum usage of deploying the camera for some unnerving angles.

To be honest I thought the initial credits sequence was the best part of the movie (great soundtrack too).

But the story and the cheap thrills of the jump scares do wreck it all for me. It's like the people making this movie couldn't come up with additional strands of storyline to fill the ninety-minute window (the movie clocks in at one hour eighteen minutes). That's why we get the main characters walking to doors slowly all the time. Like this movie is desperately trying to get the audience its moneys' worth, at least on the time schedule.

Acting

Now I might sound a bit depressing but one of the highlights in this movie is the acting. Everybody is perfectly fine. The child might be a bit inexperienced but nothing terribly (nickelodeon) annoying. And Maria Bello -ah the great Bello (watch her in Beautiful boy)- is having fun as a crazy person.

Then there's the relationship between Rebecca and Brett which is actually rather sweet. At first you suspect him to be cannon fodder number one because he looks like a loser (who happens to drive quite the expensive car). But he grows on you as a charming fellow made for an equally charming girl.

So that's a big plus to this movie: every character is rather well rounded and relatable (even likable).

Too bad the rest of the script is such a mess.

I think there's a trend going. Lately I've been seeing a lot of movies in which characters who (as the trope would demand it) normally conflict suddenly act like human beings and have reasonable conversations. Maybe it's me. Or maybe the new generation of movie writers is fed up with daddy-issues and bad-boyfriends.

Conclusion

So how should I review Lights out? It's a fun movie to sit through if you like jump scares. The acting is fine, the effects are cool. The story, however, is sub-par at best. Nothing wrong with having this little supernatural thriller on your watch list. Just don't expect to be overwhelmed by it.