Lights Out

Lights Out is the feature-length version of a short film - very short, actually, not even three minutes in total - where the brevity was one of the best things about it. It effectively set up and depicted a spooky scenario that reinforced the old adage of 'Don't be scared of the dark. Be scared of what's in it'.

And while the longer version of Lights Out, produced by Australian horror maestro James Wan, does work hard (and smart) to keep the chills coming - especially after a nicely creepy opening sequence that sets a good tone - it soon becomes clear that it's trying to stretch a small amount of material a long way.

Director David F Sandberg, behind the camera on both the short and the feature, shows some flair for ramping up tension and releasing it with a juicy jump-scare, and with a stronger story or script he could certainly give audiences a solid case of the heebie-jeebies. But Lights Out only delivers a handful of shudders and shivers.

The story has ten-year-old Martin (Gabriel Bateman) afraid to turn out the lights because of an uninvited house guest named Diana, who seems to have a hold over his mother, Sophie (Maria Bello). Diana is sinister, hostile and only appears when it's dark.

Martin's step-sister Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) is all too familiar with Diana, having experienced as a child the manic-depressive episodes Sophie went through whenever Diana was on the scene. 

She eventually cut all ties with her mother and moved away, but if Martin is going to be helped, Rebecca is going to have to confront Sophie - and Diana - one more time.

Lights Out lays on the subtext about the lingering legacy of abuse and mistreatment, which is admirable, but it's a tad heavy-handed in how it goes about it. It works best when it's trying to scare you, something it accomplishes with flair.