Lights Out - film discussion

Lights Out - and how it will save horror films

I saw this movie last night, and I was still thinking about it today, so I decided to write a full review about the film.

Lights Out is the latest Hollywood injection of horror but it is finally starting to head back into the direction I like my horror films to be. I grew up on the classics. Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Nightmare on Elm Street. Scream came out when I was in my teens, and I quickly devoured everything in the slasher horror genre.

Saw was the first horror film that I remember watching and thinking - this is going to change everything. At the time it was exciting because Saw gave the audience a deeper level to horror, a purpose behind the carnage. And then somehow all the writers seemed to think that to have a good horror you needed a psychology degree to understand it. A boom of psychology horror emerged, and of course, one can't forget the reign of 'found footage' horror movies.

I still enjoy horror, but they stopped being entertainment where you scream DON'T GO IN THERE! at stupid - but relatable - characters and evolved into movies where you ask yourself, why? Seeing the trailer for Lights Out, friends and I decided we needed to see it just because, while the horror genre has changed, we still love it. Last night, we were so excited for what this movie could do for film.

A LITTLE BACKGROUND INFO How many people remember this video from 2014? https://youtu.be/-fDzdDfviLI

It wasn't until I was googling images for this blog that I saw a still from this short and realised 'oh crap! I remember that!" and that it gave me nightmares. I hated that damn short for a few days because it stayed in my head - like all good horror should IMO. This was where the story started. It received so many likes that it was offered a full feature film. The director had not worked on other full films before then as director, so can we all give David F. Sandberg a moment of congrats. Because he damn near nailed it.

The movie follows Rebecca and her family, and their mother's haunting named Diana. Haunting is the best way to describe the character of Diana since she is technically dead. Diana and Sophie (Rebecca's Mother) met while they were both patients in a psychiatric ward as children. Diana was found at the age of 13 and reportedly had a light sensitive skin condition. The Drs thought it would be a good idea to shine some bright lights on her during an experimental therapy (yeah, I figured it was a bit short sighted of the doctors) and Diana died. She attached herself to Sophie. However, Diana is only a physical entity when Sophie stops taking her medication.

The build up of the characters is great. The film opens with a man's death. Sophie's new husband, Paul, is closing up at work and is attacked by the shadow woman. It is classic horror where the big bad is always faster than the prey and includes all the jumps scares and blood we have come to expect from early slasher films. Appropriate blood levels can make such a difference. Leave the high levels of gore to Tarantino.

We can see as soon as we meet Rebecca that she knows who this weird shadow woman is by the art on her wall. In a hand-drawn style, we can assume that she is the artist of these drawings, or had them commissioned to her description. The link isn't evident yet but enough to linger with the audience so when it all came together, we had a feeling she had seen Diana before Martian (the little boy in the film) mentions her.

Of course, in the end, the good guys win, but it is unexpected how it all goes down. I won't ruin it for people who want to see the film still.

I WATCH MOVIES WRONG It is a long running joke with my friends that I watch movies wrong. I never see them for pure enjoyment, but instead, I decipher them. I think I might have been a director or something in a past life - if I believed in that kind of thing. While people are talking about the obvious, I am wondering why the director chose that layout within the shot. I look at costuming, and how that affects the viewer's relationship with the character. These are a couple of things I noticed.

- Martian is introduced to us in the most childish, little boy pj's, ever. They are fluffy flannel type material with trucks (or race cars - can't remember which) all over them. It is the kind of pattern you would expect from really little boys, not a ten-year-old. They are deliberately dressing him young, so we connect to him quickly in a maternal way. We do not want to see him get hurt.

- Later, during daytime scenes, he is seen wearing more grown up clothes. This is his visual transformation from little boy to man of the house. With his Dad dead, and his mother no longer on medication, he needs to grow up quickly. This is also in his dialogue. For a kid, he says some of the most insightful things. Eg: he values human life and commitment. Rebecca wants to flee, and he makes her go back to save their mother. He reminds Rebecca about the importance of family, and what it means. He is the level voice of reason and the youngest person there.

- Early in the film, Martian is seen in his room. It is a typical boy room, but on the wall is a poster of vintage themed/minimalist Justice League. I can't find a copy online to show you, but anyway, the colours of the poster are almost identical to the colours of Martian's plaid shirt. He is the seeker of justice. He will be in his own justice league.

- They do this same effect with Rebecca. We see her in a scene with a poster for vengeance seven behind her, and her colouring mimics the colouring of the poster. She will get her vengeance during this film.

NOT YOUR TYPICAL HORROR FILM The reason there was a change in horror films being produced is because of the repetitive nature of slasher horror films. Scream showed it obviously with a character stating the rules of a horror movie, and what can and cannot happen during the movie. Lights Out both breaks and listens to these rules.

The first one - no sex to survive a horror film - was broken, but in a good way. There is no sex scene in Lights Out. Sex has been hand in hand with horror since the beginning of time - or at least the 80's - and you can usually be sure who will die because the promiscuous ones always get the bloodiest deaths. Lights Out introduces us to Rebecca and boyfriend Brad, post sex. Obviously, they are sleeping together; they even discuss it, but we never see it, and the movie does not suffer from this.

The boyfriend is usually a safe bet for death. Generally, their death is used to motivate the tired heroine near the end of the film. Lights Out play on this perceived belief with Brad. We think he is getting set up for a gruesome murder, but Brad is anything but ordinary. He is so super awesome; he will get his section in a moment.

Firstly, a little more on the horror rules that Lights Out uses for their benefit. The old belief that danger is just danger with no need for explanation is obviously used here. Who is Diana? The best answer is she is the spirit of a deranged little girl. But that isn't quite it either. How is she connected to Sophie? She just is. No one explains it, and it doesn't matter. The boogie man is alive and well in this film and I loved that old school charm.

WE ALL NEED A BRAD! Brad was the unsuspecting hero of the flick. He is set up quickly in the viewer's minds as the fool with a heart of gold. His first scene he is playful and sweet while Rebecca keeps kicking him out of her apartment. Telling her they have been together for eight months, but she refuses to call him boyfriend is adorable. Asking for a place to leave a pair of jeans and compromising for a sock makes you so happy inside - and feeds into that belief that he is going to die eventually.

Why else would a horror movie spend so much time setting up a b-grade character? They want us to care when he dies. Instead, he is us. When we yell at the screen to turn on a damn light, he turns on the lights. He uses a torch, his phone, the unlock button on his car keys. Brad uses so many different forms of light during the film, you just in love with him more by the end of it. #teambrad

And when you think he has abandoned us, because we are all watching this with the laws of horror guiding us subconsciously, Brad makes an unexpected return with help in tow. He brings the cops! And instead of being an idiot who relaxes once the officials show up, he stays in the light.

He is also protective of the girl who keeps rejecting him, accepts the family's crazy, and never once makes you question his motives. He loves Rebecca and cares about her brother. He says to Martian - I've got you - more times than I can count. And Martian needed this kind of rock in his life, and it came from an unexpected source. The things I could write about this character could make this little blog a heap longer. Just see the film and be prepared for some pretty bad ass moments by an unsuspecting secondary character.

IT IS NOT PERFECT While there are many things I loved about this movie, I did leave the cinema with some thoughts.

- Diana is way scarier when we don't know what she looked like. And one point, they get a black light so they can see Diana, but she is still in the dark so she can attack them up close. While Diana is appropriately deranged and freaky, I found her weirdly portioned shadow body far scarier. - Where is Rebecca's Dad? We find out during the final moments of the film that Diana killed Rebecca's dad, and that he didn't just disappear out of her life when she was ten years old. So where is the body? A more important question is why did Diana choose to leave Paul out in the open to be discovered?

- When Paul was still alive, he was talking on the phone about confronting Sophie and not calling it an intervention, but they had to do something. Who was this person on the phone, and why did they decide not to follow through on the intervention after his murder? Martian is still in danger, and his extended family (assumed person on the other end) just decided with Paul dead, Martian wasn't their problem anymore? Just a loose thread that didn't sit well with me.

Overall I give the film 7.5 out of ten. It lost points because I found out they are planning a sequel, and it so did not need a sequel. They have secured the same director, so I feel it will continue in the same vein, but the story was perfectly ended where it did. I would rather a new horror film by the same team.

#review #lightsout #horror #movies