Skip to main content

Lights Out (2016) - David F. Sandberg



Lights Out is a terrifying feature for a movie that was rated PG-13. You know how I feel about these stupid ratings. If you don't, I hate them. However, this movie seemed to do something that most of these other movies just don't do. It worked. It was a feature that frightened and creeped. It's the kind of PG-13 horror movie that I can get behind. A harken back to the eighties when that damn rating meant almost nothing.

Poor Martin has a psychotic mother that can talk with ghosts. Well, one really freaky ghost that is only visible in the dark. Her name is Diana. Martin ends up getting picked up by Child Protective Services and then his Sister. After some convincing that an entity named Diana has returned, Martin, his sister and her boyfriend decide to confront the mother and her friend Diana. This of course has some disastrous results.

I am not afraid of the dark. But sometimes you get that feeling. That horrible feeling that something bad is lurking. This movie captures that feeling perfectly and mixes it well with jump scares in a way that works well but becomes rather gimmicky. Its a good thing it's a great gimmick.

This is a pretty decent feature that tries too hard with the material it has. It's good for a date night feature as it has almost no gore. It plays up the suspense through the visual aspect. It's a very dark movie and that means the ghost is right at home.

Director: David F. Sandberg
Producer: James Wan, Lawrence Grey and Eric Heisserer
Starring: Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia. and Maria Bello
Studio: New Line Cinema, RatPac-Dune Entertainment and Atomic Monster Productions
Release Date: June 8, 2016
Country: United States
Did ya Know: The feature film debut of David F. Sandberg. He decided to expand his original short film Lights Out (2013) into a feature film after it garnered very positive reception on the internet.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t...

Humanoids From the Deep (1980) - Barbara Peeters and Jimmy T. Murakami

This is your standard old drive-in Creature Feature that has tons of gore and boobs. It's great if your in for a cheap thrill. This film goes right up along side any Roger Corman produced picture from the eighties. It's rumored that Joe Dante was approached to direct this movie but he turned it down. Humanoids from the Deep, also known as Monster, is a strange but forgettable piece of exploitation that failed to make it's notch in history. Don't let that detour you though. This is a really fun little film that doesn't fail to be entertaining.  A small sea town in California is terrorized by some mutated creatures from the deep. They look like some sort of mutated fish, merman-thing. They seem to have one goal in mind and that is raping and impregnating the females of the town. Also the town is being taken for a ride by a shifty businessman and his new corporate cannery. Could this evil cannery corporation be responsible for the Extreme Creatures of the B...

Escape From Tomorrow (2013) - Randy Moore

This review may contain spoilers. An American independent horror movie from filmmaker Randy Moore. It stars Roy Abramsohn, Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez, Jack Dalton, Annet Mahendru, and Alison Lees-Taylor. It premiered at the official selection of Roger Ebert, at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18th, 2013. Synopsis Jim is a depressed middle-aged man that despises his family life but wants to try to hold it together for a vacation to the Walt Disney World Resort. Jim receives a call before they leave and, unfortunately, Jim has lost his job as well. It proves too much to handle as this trip to the Magic Kingdom becomes a hellish nightmare. Jim’s mind cracks as we watch him deal with Disney’s seedy underbelly. Complete with elaborate corporate conspiracy, undercover sex workers, and demons. Oh and two very young French girls that Jim lusts over. It’s gross. Analysis The acting is amateurish. It’s nothing that’s going to win any awards or anything. The wri...