Lights Out begins with Paul (Billy Burke) who is working late in a Warehouse and is on the phone to his son Martin (Gabriel Bateman) who seems to be struggling to deal with the problems his mother Sophie (Maria Bello) is having. When a worker who is closing up sees a strange figure which seems to shift position each time she turns the lights off, she tries to warn Paul but he is dismissive and sends her home however he soon learns that the figure is very real.

A few months later we jump to Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) who is Martins half sister and when she receives a call from his school as they are unable to locate his mother she finds out that Martin has been falling asleep in class as his mothers mental illness and depression seems to have fully kicked back in, she is acting strangely and taking to herself all night. Rebecca takes Martin to stay with her but when she too has an encounter with this strange figure it becomes apparent that she, her mother and her step brother are all in danger and must find a way to work out why it is targeting them and then how they can escape from its clutches.

The premise of the movie is great, having a figure that can only move in the shadows and darkness it does a very great job of playing on our primeval fears of the unseen terrors that lurk in the dark. However the big issue I had was that most of the best parts of the movie were shown in the trailers which defeated the purpose of most of the jump scares and the rest of the movie had a feel of a by the numbers horror film albeit with a new concept as the whole story was quite obvious. The acting was fine even if the casting was a bit one dimensional, a strangely acting mother, a terrified kid, a good hearted but skeptical boyfriend, a strong willed protagonist etc. and both Palmer and Bello were wasted talent as there was no requirement in this film for them to stretch their range so despite the supposed danger I never felt that there was any real tension on the screen and found myself noticing gaps in the plot points which is not a good sign.

Director David Sandberg started this film as a short and there was enough to peak my interest in seeing what he could do with a second movie using this as a learning curve but even with the talents of James Wan on the list of producers this was not the great movie it could have been. So despite having a good idea, some good camera work by switching from third person to point of view to build moments well and some very good trailers it ends up being a run of the mill horror movie with none of the originality it promised. It’s a decent watch and if you like the genre you will most likely enjoy it but it didn’t fulfill my high expectations and the fact that they have already started working on a sequel is a disappointment as it doesn’t warrant it and while I was sold on this movie, it will take a lot more effort to get me interested next time.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10