I was pleasantly surprised with Lights Out, guess James Wan even as a producer as the Midas touch. Now, it’s not exactly an innovation in the horror genre or anything but serves as a perfectly effective but enjoyable experience with some well done performances.
Lights Out
(2016)
Genre(s): Horror
Warner Bros. | PG13 – 81 min. – $29.98 | October 25, 2016
Date Published: 10/21/2016 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 3.75/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Growing up, Rebecca Lloyd (TERESA PALMER) never knew what lay behind the terror lurking in the dark. When she left home, she thought she’d also left her fears behind. Now her little step-brother, Martin (GABRIEL BATEMAN), is experiencing the same unexplained and terrifying events that once tested her sanity. A supernatural entity with a connection to their mother’s (MARIA BELLO) past is haunting them, and as Rebecca gets closer to discovering the truth, her life and the lives of those around her are in danger… once the lights go out.
Review: Going in, there were some red flags that caught my eye. For one, the running time is an incredibly short 81-minutes (meaning 75-minutes sans credits) and the premise was pretty basic. However, to my surprise, Lights Out is one heck of a supernatural horror flick, best of all, an effective and efficient one. Because of the short duration, the story is quick with the minimal amount of background on the entity, her past and association with the mother. Horror movies also don’t ask a whole from the cast but Teresa Palmer (Point Break remake) and even child actor Gabriel Bateman (Annabelle), come off pretty well even when the dialogue isn’t the best written. Serving in the coveted smaller roles, Billy Burke has cameo early on as the father to Gabriel while Maria Bello has a few creepy scenes as Teresa and Gabriel’s mother, Sophie. Lights Out, produced by the current master of horror James Wan (Insidious, The Conjuring 1 & 2), was helmed by David F. Sandberg (making his feature-length debut), based off of his short story, and the screenplay adapted by Eric Heisserer (The Thing prequel, Nightmare on Elm Street remake).
In the end, Lights Out was an effective horror-thriller that doesn’t have any extraneous scenes and instead focuses on the horror elements, albeit there are a few clichéd jump scares punctuated by a loud soundtrack. While this might not rank very high compared with other modern horror, namely those directed by James Wan, it’s still makes for a great Saturday night flick. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.5/5 |
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Unfortunately all that is included is a set of Deleted Scenes (13:58; HD) and a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Shame they couldn’t include the original short film this was based off of… Preview – The Accountant |
VIDEO – 4.75/5 |
| Warner Home Video flips the switch on Lights Out presented with a 1080p high-definition transfer and show in its original 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio. Another surprise, beyond the movie, was this transfer which showcases sharp and well defined detail while colors, in spite of many scenes taking place in the dark, are generally bright while black levels were stark never revealing any signs of aliasing or artifacts. |
AUDIO – 4.5/5 |
| The lossless audio isn’t to be outdone, however. The disc includes a robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which is strong with good depth and especially effective when it comes to the oft generic horror score by Benjamin Wallfisch (A Cure for Wellness and did some work on Batman v Superman). Dialogue levels were generally crisp and clean primarily coming from the center channel while the front and rears were relegated for the creepy ambient noises. |
OVERALL – 3.25/5 |
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Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with Lights Out, guess James Wan even as a producer as the Midas touch. Now, it’s not exactly an innovation in the horror genre or anything but serves as a perfectly effective but enjoyable experience with some well done performances particularly on the parts of Teresa Palmer and Maria Bello. The Blu-ray release is, sadly, rather weak; the video and audio transfers are both excellent but with only some deleted scenes, the features were on the limited side. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.