Years ago, during an evening shift at work, Martin's father was brutally killed without explanation by someone or something that was never caught or figured out. After time has gone by, the young man is living with his seemingly emotionally broken mother, and has been experiencing frightening episodes during the night brought upon by a woman named Diana. After he bares his soul to older sister Rebecca, the woman confesses to Martin that she herself has also been the victim of these same terrors throughout her life. The emergence of this malevolent spirit is no coincidence, however, and together with Rebecca's new boyfriend, the trio set out to discover the true meaning of its existence, and the potential connection it has to their own clouded family history.
Considering my tendency to unfortunately avoid seeing newer releases in the horror genre inside of a theater (this is something that I am in dire need of correcting), the decision to choose Lights Out, the full-length feature based on the short of the same name by first time director David F. Sandberg, over a gigantic blockbuster like the newest entry in the Star Trek franchise, is riskier than I thought it would be. But, given my surprisingly good run of films steeped in said genre that I've viewed lately, diving into a third one in less than a month could make for a nice grand slam. Of course, if this particular project ended up being less than stellar, I may find myself with several eggs on my face, adjourned with Enterprise logos.
Smack dab on the poster for Lights Out is the production credit for one Mr. James Wan, the Malaysian-Australian director/producer whose credits include The Conjuring, Fast 7, and more motion pictures that I am certain you have seen before (and possibly even own). Without even having to see a single frame of this flick, you can sense the fellow's influence that permeates throughout Lights Out. First, there's the emphasis on long moments of silence, only to be topped off by absolutely startling moments of terror that range in terms of volume projected forth. Secondly, the idea of any benevolent spirit being attached to a human being, potentially suffering from trauma kept secret from others, rather than merely haunting an establishment. Wan's own Insidious comes to mind, as does the terrific The Babadook by Jennifer Kent, of which I can tell Sandberg and his crew are clearly big fans of. Thirdly, the unmistakeable decision to keep the body count low. With the exception of his debut effort Saw, Wan has the idea that bloodshed and stacking up the corpses isn't wholly necessary for wresting real fear from human beings. As much of a sucker as I am for films that pile on the bodies like I do with calories, I sympathize and agree with that mindset. Perhaps it's because I have gotten older over time, as I'm certain that I would have loathed a film like this one in my younger, more ignorant teenage years. Still, as respectable as that may be, the scares in Lights Out didn't seem to come in as strongly as I would have wanted them to. Mercifully, they never enter into comical territory, but the over-reliance on the dreaded jump scare tactic does wear thin as time goes on, even if there are some very good ones that pop up during its shockingly short eighty-one minute running time. Thanks to some fairly good cinematography, the mood is kept moderately tense whenever light does escape, adding a real feeling that nothing can truly be done to defeat whatever it is that is persistently disturbing this family.
Two of our main protagonists are portrayed by Teresa Palmer (Take Me Home Tonight, Warm Bodies) and Alexander DiPersia, who I believe is a relative newcomer when it comes to taking larger roles in theatrically released movies. Admittedly, they are a bit hit or miss during sequences that don't directly deal with this mostly unseen force, but young newcomer Gabriel Bateman, who was previously cast in another Wan-related project titled Annabelle, does stand out among the tortured cast as Rebecca's younger brother Martin. He is rather good at emitting genuine fear when the time is right, and you feel for him more than any other individual caught in the madness that surrounds them. Plus, he doesn't have an Avenged Sevenfold poster hanging at his flat like the aforementioned couple discussed in the first sentence of this paragraph. While I did expect veteran performer Maria Bello (A History of Violence, The Cooler) to deliver a quality performance as their deeply disturbed, psychologically tortured mother, it did seem to take more than a couple of scenes for that to occur, and she does end up showing why I firmly believe that she's one of the most criminally overlooked actresses in Hollywood. The rest of the cast, for what there is, are fine too, if not underused or just serving the purpose of being "redshirts" or existing as pieces in occasionally shoddy flashback sequences.
Lights Out serves as an interesting, if not evidently flawed experience that depends entirely on your expectations of what you think horror of this ilk can or should be. Well, that and if you can stomach being surrounded by the unmistakable idiots that fill the cineplexes these days during the opening weekend of newer scary releases. For a PG-13 motion picture without a recognizable name attached as director and a modest budget of roughly five million dollars, the film isn't terribly bad, nor is it terribly good. At the end of the day, it is a fine and durable effort with some decent jumps and heart from a director who I will do the best to keep my eye on for the next few years. After all, all one has to do is look back at James Wan's own filmography to notice the rise in quality and increase of bigger/better projects that came his way.
God help us all if Aquaman somehow screws that up though.
No comments:
Post a Comment