Lights Out (2016 film)

Plot

In a textile warehouse, worker Esther sees a silhouette of a zombie-like female figure when she turns the lights off, but sees nothing with the lights on. She warns owner Paul about the apparition, which he ignores, and leaves. Paul is then chased and gruesomely killed by the figure.

Paul's stepdaughter, Rebecca, lives away from her mother Sophie and half-brother Martin. Sophie suffers from mental illness and a depression that has resurfaced, talking to an imaginary friend. One night, Martin sees Sophie talking to a figure and is horrified, he runs into his bedroom and hears scratching at his door and the door knob being turned. The next morning the nurse sees Martin and that was it something is wrong. She tries calling his mom but the mom doesn't answer. She finally calls Rebecca who comes in with her boyfriend to the school to pick up Martin. Rebecca takes Martin to his house and Rebecca and her mom talk to him about his lack of sleep. While he is packing his overnight bag in his bedroom ready to leave he hears a strange noise in the room next to his. All of a sudden a dark figure appears behind the door and slammed the door shut. Rebecca takes Martin to her apartment to protect him against their mother's wishes. That night, Rebecca awakens to see the figure, barely avoiding its attack thanks to the building's neon sign flashing through her window. The next morning, Rebecca finds "Diana" scrawled on the floor. She recalls Diana from her own childhood, the reason she left when her father, Sophie's first husband, seemingly abandoned them. Later, she breaks in and sees files about Sophie and Diana, and that Diana was killed when exposed to a bright light during an experiment.

Sophie has a movie night with Martin, but seemingly invites the figure, frightening him. She tells him a story about the figure, Diana, her friend when she was in an institution, who had an unusual condition that made her skin photosensitive. Martin sees Diana crouched above and turns on the light, escaping to Rebecca's before Diana can attack him. They see Diana again at Rebecca's house, where she tries to attack Martin but Rebecca saves him.

Rebecca confronts Sophie about Diana but she denies the accusations. Rebecca, her boyfriend Bret and Martin decide to stay overnight to protect Sophie. Rebecca goes to her bedroom door to reconcile; however, Sophie secretly passes her a note saying "I need help" before Diana tugs her back in. Rebecca realizes that she is being controlled and turns on all the lights in the house to keep Diana away.

Knowing their intentions, Diana baits Rebecca and Martin into the basement by shorting out the power. Bret is attacked but escapes and contacts the police. Rebecca realizes that using a blacklight can allow them to see Diana and discovers scrawled writings along the wall, explaining how Diana won't let anyone "take" Sophie and that she killed Rebecca's father.

A pair of police officers arrive and free Rebecca and Martin but are killed by Diana. Rebecca sends Martin out with Bret and goes back to rescue Sophie. Diana attacks Rebecca violently, but Sophie confronts her with a gun. Realizing she's Diana's tether to the world, Sophie commits suicide with the gun, which makes Diana disappear. Distraught, Rebecca, Martin and Bret reconcile and vow to stay together.

Cast

Production

Sandberg, along with his wife Lotta Losten, created the initial short film for a film competition. Although the film did not win the competition, the short soon went viral, leading to Sandberg to be contacted by several agents, to the point where he had to develop a spreadsheet to keep track of them all. One of the contacts was Lawrence Grey who wanted to collaborate with James Wan in order to produce a feature-length version. Although Wan enjoyed the short, he was hesitant that it could be turned into a feature until Sandberg produced a treatment for the feature-length version.

The move to Hollywood was somewhat hectic for the couple, requiring that Losten quit her day job in order to do so. Once in Hollywood the two were unable to get an apartment due to a lack of credit, forcing them to rent Airbnb on a monthly basis.

The casting of Gabriel Bateman and Teresa Palmer was announced in June 2015; which was the same month that principal photography had begun. Sandberg had not worked with a film crew or visited a film set before directing Lights Out; he had to ask the first assistant director, "So when do I say action?" Filming wrapped on August 5, 2015.

Special effects of having the ghost appear and disappear were mostly done by using a split-screen technique as also used in the short. Sandberg said "Whenever she’s in frame with another character, it’s basically just a split screen. So you shoot it with her and without her. You turn the camera on with her, you turn it off and she walks off, and then you turn it on again. It’s super simple, actually." Sandberg also made a list of what he called the "light gags", or different ways to create light sources from flashlights to cell phones and gunfire. Director James Wan also put in the idea of replacing the flickering neon sign with passing car headlights.

Sandberg originally based the character of Rebecca a real girl that he knew who was going through depression and being a cutter which is why Rebecca has scars on her arms, but the development of the film made it less of her depression, and more of a ghost story in which Diana would have been the real person who died and became a ghost. Wan came up with the idea of making Diana the ghost. Rebecca's boyfriend was also given a twist of being a rocker, but is actually committed and responsible, even driving a safe car like a Volvo. Another twist Sandberg liked was making the imaginary friend for the mother rather than the trope of having the friend be for the child.

Suicide concerns and ending

After hearing concerns from critics that the ending of the film was promoting suicide, Sandberg interviewed with AV Club where he said he was distressed about that idea, and wanted to explain his position. He said that he originally wanted to make a film about depression, as he has also suffered from it, and that one of his friends had committed suicide. Diana was not a ghost back then, but during the development of the film, it became more of a horror film. It still retained some themes about depression and mental illness. He had originally shot a second ending to the film in which Martin becomes depressed and Diana comes back one more time before she is killed. However, test audiences hated that ending, saying that Sophie's sacrifice would have been in vain.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 8, 2016. The film also screened at Comic-Con on July 20, 2016, and was released on July 22, 2016.

Box office

Lights Out grossed $67.3 million in the United States and Canada and $81.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $148.9 million, against a production budget of $4.9 million.

In North America, Lights Out was projected to gross $13–15 million from 2,900 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $1.8 million from its Thursday night screenings and $9.2 million on its first day. The film exceeded expectations and earned $21.7 million in its opening weekend, finishing at third place behind fellow newcomer Star Trek Beyond and holdover The Secret Life of Pets.

In other territories, the film earned $8.5 million in its opening weekend from 3,737 screens in key markets of Russia and Australia along with 30 smaller Eastern European and Asian markets. The film benefited from being released in the wake of the global success of The Conjuring 2. It debuted at first place in Russia with $1.7 million. Its other top openings were recorded in South Korea ($3.9 million), France ($1.5 million), the U.K. ($1.4 million) and Spain ($1.1 million). Its biggest earning markets are South Korea ($7.7 million), Mexico ($5.5 million), the U.K. ($4.5 million) and Spain ($3.9 million).

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 76% based on 152 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Lights Out makes skillful use of sturdy genre tropes — and some terrific performances — for an unsettling, fright-filled experience that delivers superior chills without skimping on story." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 58 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Lucy O'Brien of IGN gave the film 7/10, saying: "[w]ith an unnerving monster at its core, great cast and relentless final sequence, Light’s [sic] Out is a debut director Sandberg should be proud of. A clunky script occasionally loosens its grip on the nerves, but chances are Diana will still have you sleeping with the lights on for a good while after leaving the theatre." Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film 4 stars out of 4, stating: "[e]ven the most cynical, jaded, seen-it-all-before critic cannot deny certain visceral reactions to a film. Lights Out gave me the chills." Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "[a] surprisingly maternal horror movie that relies as much on fraying emotional bonds as supernatural suspense to create tension, Lights Out deals with an array of primal fears that threaten to unravel a family’s fundamental relationships, along with their sanity." Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote, "[s]packling over any copycat cracks with strong acting and fleet editing, Lights Out delivers minimalist frights in old-school ways."

A few critics were less taken with the film. James Berardinelli of Reelviews gave 2 stars out of 4, saying: "[u]nfortunately, the film stumbles, offering too few legitimate scares and displaying an overreliance on traditional horror movie clichés." Berardinelli detested the film's camerawork, characters as being "thinly drawn", and the screenplay "spending inordinate amount of time providing a backstory..." Rex Reed of The Observer gave 1 star out of 4, saying: "the film's screenplay focuses almost entirely on the number of resourceful and ingenious ways the characters dream up to keep the lights on, stave off the next attack and stay alive—lights from candles, flashlights, cellphones, the car in the driveway—before the batteries die; The fun wears out fast and so does the “gotcha” factor."

Sequel

In July 2016, a week after the film's release, it was announced that New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures had greenlit a sequel. Heisserer and Sandberg will return to write and direct the film, respectively, while Wan and Lawrence Grey will return to produce under their Atomic Monster and Grey Matter Productions banners. Sandberg said that he would see some potential to continue the story using the impact of an element of the resolution of this 2016 film.