Lights Out

Already running out of funny ideas for how to describe these boogeyman in da house horror movies for a first date. At the very least, the darkness-addicted villain theme could have made for an interesting filmmaking challenge, where you could have played an action game with the protagonists with cones of light in the style of PC games like Alan Wake, which the lazy filmmakers probably didn't feel like doing, so they repeat the one trick of approaching evil in a flickering environment. It would have been cool to see how Buster Keaton would have handled a similar plot. (2016-11-09)

It’s a shame that this movie follows the genre template too closely, working with overused clichés, and has the runtime of a Leslie Nielsen comedy. And it’s too bad that the characters are underdeveloped. The monster Diane has much greater potential, as she is scarier than anything from James Wan’s masterpieces. The scenes with her escalate from continuous goose bumps to a very intense climax. (2016-08-09)

I wouldn't hold out much hope that Lights Out will defend the top spot in horror this year. The trailer struck me as a bit underwhelming, but the film itself is one of the best we've seen in cinemas in the last few years (not counting The Conjuring). David F. Sandberg sets a relentless pace from the opening minutes and rolls out one scare after another, you only have a maximum of 5 minutes to breathe, which is great; the last film to sech such a pace was Drag me to Hell. The idea is very functional, whenever it's dark danger is near, you are worried about all the characters, because their lives are really on the line, and the ghost, even though it's mostly in the dark, is scary, makes disturbing noises, and most importantly is on the scene very often. On the plus side, the half-hour finale with an unexpected twist makes Lights Out an intense 80-minute spectacle that should appeal to anyone who is at least a little bit at home with horror. The Conjuring gives a better impression in terms of story, visuals and setting, whereas Lights Out relies only on scares and it worked. Story 6/10, Atmosphere 9/10, Gore 4/10, Visuals 7/10, Action 8/10, Suspense 9/10, Humour 3/10. Entertainment 8/10, Scares 9/10. 85%. (2016-07-22)

One of the most anticipated horror films of last year has finally made it onto my "Watched Movies" list. I hate to say it, but I expected much better. The director can be excused somewhat by the fact that this is his debut, aside from a short film. The concept has something to it, and in this regard, the film scores points. However, the execution lagged quite a bit. The story felt rather bland, nothing that stands out, and it's something that has already been filmed by others at least a thousand times. The cast wasn’t that bad, definitely not, but was I thrilled by them? Definitely not. There were plenty of jump scares, which is a plus in one sense, but in some moments, they felt forced, which is a problem. If everything surrounding the entity of Diana had been better explained, I would have considered giving a higher rating. The last 10 minutes or so in the house were probably the best; it had the right intensity, the arrival of the police and their subsequent erasure from the face of the earth lifted the film out of mediocrity. But the ending felt like they really didn’t know how to wrap it up. I definitely won’t be watching this again, and I give it 62%. (2017-04-15)

As a small-scale film, this movie is quite fine. What’s also fine however is how the director took the original idea, which had been made into a short film, and managed to turn it into a feature film. It’s nothing complicated, but it works. It’s not silly at all. People behave the way real people do rather than behaving like rubber figurines on paper. So, all in all? A pleasant horror movie surprise – it won’t offend you and while it won’t make you excited either, it gets the mission fulfilled with a full number of survivors. (2017-12-15)