According to IMDb, most of the effects in this movie were practical, with a limited use of CGI, meaning that the picture is extremely realistic and lifelike even the demon who stalks our protagonists looks excellent. Lights Out was shot on Arri Alexa cameras at a resolution of 2.8K, with the final product rendered at 2K for theaters. Just make sure you replace your lightbulbs after watching this one you’ll want to keep your lights on for a few days. Lights Out isn’t perfect, but as a Hollywood debut, this is a very strong entry into the genre and a film which everyone can appreciate because it tackles one of mankind’s greatest fears. I saw a ton of promise in David Sandberg’s abilities to craft an engaging and original horror story, and I am looking forward to what comes next, starting with Annabelle 2, which has plenty of room to improve on the original. Most likely, the sequel will need to focus on another original story, or maybe a story from the past, like Rebecca’s fight with the demon in the years before the events of Lights Out.
The initial ending would have led directly into a sequel, but it was revised after scoring poorly with test audiences, and so now the ending really wraps things up nicely. I am interested to see where a sequel would take us, as this story seemed fairly cut and dry and came to a solid conclusion. The performances by the small cast are all good enough, and overall, it is an excellent debut. For a feature length debut, Sandberg comes off as a seasoned veteran of the horror genre, hitting all of the right marks and keeping me enthralled for the entire run of the film. There is a deeper, psychological fear of the dark, and the way that this movie utilizes light, and the lack thereof, as the driving force of terror is extremely impressive. The jump scares are spread evenly throughout the film and definitely catch the audience off-guard, but they are not relied upon. Lights Out is extremely effective, quickly paced (coming in at just 81 minutes), and terrifying. As the family fights the demon inside their house, keeping the lights on wherever they can, Rebecca investigates the demonic presence and finds some shocking information about her family’s past. Older daughter Rebecca (Teresa Palmer), the typical rebellious 20-something, is called to pick up Martin at school after he complains about the issues at home with his mother, and Rebecca soon learns that the same demon she fought off as a younger girl has come back to terrorize her brother. When the father, Paul, is murdered at his textile factory late one night by a demon that only manifests in the dark, the same demonic force begins to terrorize Paul’s wife, the mentally ill Sophie (Maria Bello), and their son Martin (Gabriel Bateman). The film tells us the story of a typical family haunted by a supernatural presence. The fear of the darkness is such a primal instinct that a film like this will hit even the hardest horror fans with some very serious scares. Lights Out follows such an interesting story and premise that I actually can’t believe it had not been done before in the horror genre. As far as Hollywood success stories go, this is as cool as it gets. A sequel was greenlit immediately after opening weekend, and Sandberg was also given the director’s seat for the upcoming Annabelle 2. Lights Out was released to theaters in July of 2016 and went on to gross over $147 million at the worldwide box office on a budget of just under $5 million. The original short film is still on YouTube and can be watched here. Soon after, Sandberg was contacted by multiple Hollywood agents, and began production on a feature length version of the story, with horror movie heavyweight James Wan ( The Conjuring, Saw, Insidious) as Producer. However, it was also posted to YouTube, and soon after it was posted to Reddit, where the film quickly gained tons of traction and views, and was talked about for days on the popular social media site. Sandberg had originally created his short film Lights Out for a short film competition, where it lost out on the grand prize. As a long-time member of the Reddit community, I was extremely excited to check out Lights Out, the feature-length debut of Director David Sandberg.
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