Leaves us in the dark

LIGHTS OUT (2016)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I suppose the one novelty to "Lights Out," a far too short supernatural horror flick, is that the silhouetted ghost can only be seen when no lights are on. Turn the light on, and the ghost disappears. Turn it off, and she is either scratching her name on the wooden floor or is ready to kill with her talons. This novelty can wear thin after a while but it does induce a few solid scares in an otherwise shopworn screenplay that feels undernourished.

Teresa Palmer is Rebecca, a young woman who is clearly into smoking pot and listening to heavy metal records (though the movie neglects to show her doing either thanks to a PG-13 rating. Taking this further, Rebecca has just had sex with her boyfriend after a segue from a horrific opening sequence but she doesn't remove her top. Yeah, right). Rebecca's grief-stricken mother, Sophie (Maria Bello), has a mental illness and claims to be talking to Diana, the aforementioned silhouetted ghost. The estranged Rebecca gets word of this from her younger stepbrother, Martin (Gabriel Bateman), who is scared out of his wits when he sees Diana! Since this event is explained early in the film, then it is clear that Rebecca's mother is not seeing things - Diana is real! Rebecca discovers Diana through old photographs and taped recordings and finds that Diana was a mental patient who was friends with Sophie when they were kids. The rest of the film has Rebecca and her boyfriend trying to thwart Diana and calm Sophie down. Not an easy task when Diana doesn't want anyone getting in the way of her conversations with Sophie.

There are a few good scares in "Lights Out" and Teresa Palmer, a terrific presence on screen especially when I first noticed her in the poignant "Warm Bodies," makes the most of her underwritten role. Maria Bello did not convince me she was suffering through a major ordeal - clearly, she was misdirected as if she just finished vomiting in the toilet. The character of Diana is also, pardon the pun, left in the dark and it only reminded me of the ghosts in the far more enlightening "The Others" from 2001. Diana is depicted as a monster from the start, including her growling voice in a tape recording that sounds more like the umpteenth sound effects outtake from "The Exorcist." Is that the way she sounds when she talks to Sophie? Who knows because no scene is shown of them just talking, which would have added enormously to the horror proceedings.

After the conclusion of the 1 hour and 16 minute mark (and five minutes of end credits), all you will remember are the relentless moments where the characters make sure to keep lights on, including car headlights, light from iphones, etc. It is entertaining enough to make one wish there was more to chew on. Based on a short film by David F. Sandberg, the feature-length film still feels like a short.