Last night I finally got around to watching the summer horror hit Lights Out. The film grew out of this award winning 2 1/2 minute horror short from 2013 (also called Lights Out).
I have long been a fan of supernatural horror films, and Lights Out is provides a satisfying pastiche of familiar horror tropes including the following (caution: mild spoilers may be found below):
- Big scary house with creaking hardwood floors
- A mysterious door that won’t open … and then opens by itself
- One person talking quietly to somebody else even though they are alone in the room (or are they?)
- Mental hospital and creepy audio recordings from a therapy session
- Bad-boy boyfriend lends aid to scared love interest (though one surprise is that he drives a Volvo SUV. Huh? Whatever happened to the 1970s Camaro?)
- Eerie old photos and other spooky bric-a-brac found in a box which offer tantalizing clues for amateur detectives
- Going into the dark basement to check the fuses (seriously, who would do that?!!)
- Getting trapped in the basement (serves you right for checking the fuses)
- People in danger inexplicably decide to split up (so they can be hunted individually?!)
- Police arrive, guns drawn, thereby creating a (false) sense of security
- One person sacrifices him/herself to the malevolent force in order to save others
- Survivors sitting in the back of an ambulance with a blanket over their shoulders while police cars with lights flashing surround “the scene” (this is one of my favorite tropes)
- A final subtle hint (e.g. a flicker of light) that all is not well … thereby leaving open the door for a sequel should box office receipts justify it
- Oh yeah, and the completely gratuitous inclusion of creepy mannequins
Qoheleth said it best: “there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) But sometimes the old things can be shuffled in a way that they produce a movie that just may have you leaving the lights on.
