The film received positive reviews from critics, with many praising the direction, screenplay, acting, cinematography and musical score, and grossed $148 million against a budget of $4.9 million. The film had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 8, 2016, and was released in the United States and Canada on July 22, 2016, by Warner Bros.
Principal photography for the film began in June 2015 in Los Angeles. After the short film's success, Sandberg announced a film adaptation based on his short film. In the film, a young woman must confront her childhood fears to protect her brother from a vengeful supernatural entity holding a mysterious attachment to their mother. It is based on Sandberg's 2013 short film of the same name and features Lotta Losten, who starred in the short. It stars Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Billy Burke, and Maria Bello. Sandberg in his directorial debut, produced by Lawrence Grey, James Wan, and Eric Heisserer and written by Heisserer. Hell, this tweak even lets the plot keep its smart-ass kid who was originally the only person at stake.Īnyway, I don’t expect Hollywood to stop making redundant horror films.īut I do hope that people will eventually understand why they’re bad.Lights Out is a 2016 American supernatural horror film directed by David F.
The change also has the added discomfort of letting people wonder if the mentally ill aren’t imagining everything. It would’ve made the experience more relatable for the numerous people who have seen and experienced mental disorders. The suicide could’ve felt natural if the story were narrated through the mother instead of shoe-horning her daughter into it. This rids the ghost and saves everybody, unless of course you count the two police officers who were sacrificed for the sake of a plural fatality count.
In the end, in a shitty attempt at character development and plot resolution the mother who is hosting the ghost commits suicide. This is the only time where you actually see the ghost and there’s not much to be pleased about. It practically insults the audience by repeating again what was visible on the screen a few minutes ago.Īfter spending a thorough amount of time dealing with the ghost without getting too unfurled, the leads happen upon a blacklight which uses a scientific technicality to let the ghost be seen. The history behind the creation of the ghost could not have been more uninspired.Īnd its revelation by having a character narrated exposition is of the laziest means in existence. Over time you realize they have plot armour which intentionally puts them in contrived situations in order to let the plot proceed. The humans are also far more intelligent in dealing with ghosts and less so otherwise. Interestingly, all the normal human characters have excellent heuristic abilities where they figure out this particular feature and rely on it throughout the movie. It is therefore only visible when there’s no light in the form of a sillhouette and has the excellent side effect of significantly cutting down the CGI budget.Īll this is established quite efficiently to the audience in the beginning of the film itself. It literally disappears and cannot affect you when there’s light on its body. The ghost in this film has the distinction of being only present where there’s darkness. That’s too little innovation in a field where there is potential for so much more.īeyond traditional jump scares, disfigured humans and plain old gore, there’s not much to reliably scare a large percentage of people.