Originally written October 14, 2016

While there have been some rare exceptions like last year’s original movie It Follows, a lot of movies in the horror genre have slipped into familiar concepts and tired cliches. Even some of the better ones wind up being plagued down by some of the common problems the genre has faced. That’s why I have to say that it really is so refreshing to see a movie like Lights Out. The movie clocks in at under 80 minutes, but it makes full use of that time to deliver an original story and some great thrills.

The movie centers around a woman named Rebecca and her mother Sophie. Something has always been a little off with Sophie, and so Rebecca grew up wondering if some of the strange occurrences she experienced with her mother actually happened, or if it was all in her head. Now that she’s a young woman out on her own, Rebecca starts to witness her little brother Martin going through the same experiences with Sophie that she did as a child. Rebecca decides to discover the truth behind what’s going on with her mother, as she comes face to face with a mysterious entity that only appears when the lights are off and that has a strange attachment to her mother.

While I’m sure there have probably been similar kinds of concepts in some other horror movies, I always find it’s about execution, and Lights Out really delivers. The first few minutes set the mood by inviting you to get invested in the mystery of what’s going on, and to give you the first look at the entity that serves as the antagonist for the rest of the movie. This entity is given the name Diana, and as far as “movie monsters” go, I found her to be legitimately scary. Her first appearance on screen creeped the hell out of me, and the way she’s utilized throughout the movie makes for some really great scares. This is the type of movie that doesn’t just try to throw in some cheap jump scares and call it a horror movie. It builds an interesting story that gets you wondering about what’s going on, and then earns its scares along the way. With movies like this, I find that it’s best to not talk about it too much, because the joy of it comes from experiencing it yourself. I went in blind, having not even seen a trailer or anything, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself from beginning to end. It’s not a perfect movie and doesn’t quite have that special something about it that will propel it into being an all-time classic, but for what it’s worth, Lights Out is one of the best horror movies I’ve seen in years. It’s simple, yet effective.

4.5/5