Light’s Out: Movie Review

David Sandberg’s 2013 short film, “Light’s Out” became a massive online hit. Horror fans praised it and with good reason. The thing was utterly terrifying.  When a feature film based on the acclaimed short was announced, I was all for it, especially with Sandberg at the helm and James Wan on board as producer.   Although the feature version of “Light’s Out” has its’ scary moments, it manages to move at a snail’s pace. Thankfully it has an 81-minute run-time.

Martin (Gabriel Bateman) is having difficulty sleeping at night.  That is because his mother Sophie (Maria Bello) has allowed her childhood friend Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey) to stay with them.  Oh, did I mention that Diana died as a child and is now a malevolent entity?  When Martin’s older sister Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) comes back home and gets involved with her brother’s well-being, things quickly escalate. Diana is not happy about Rebecca and her boyfriend Bret (Alexander DiPersia) trying to take Martin away from Sophie and she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

“Light’s Out” definitely has some clever moments.  Diana can only exist in the darkness and the light hurts her. One of my favorite sequences is when Bret uses the car alarm button on his keys to get away from Diana.  Unfortunately, moments like that are rare.  “Light’s Out” has a solid cast, but Sandberg has only had experience in shorts up until this point. He needs to work on keeping things moving at a better pace. Hopefully his follow-up feature, next year’s “Annabelle 2” will be less dull, or at least better than the first “Annabelle”.

By: Marc Ferman