Lights Out

It seems that simplicity holds power, and that's why the creators of the film chose to take the straightforward path. The story about something lurking in the darkness, whether seen or unseen in the first scene, is harsh, eerie, and unsettling. Yes, it truly seems deceptively simple at first glance, but the creators managed to frighten the audience, and I commend them for that. (26/01/2017)

I wouldn't hold out much hope that Lights Out will defend the top spot in horror this year. The trailer struck me as a bit underwhelming, but the film itself is one of the best we've seen in cinemas in the last few years (not counting The Conjuring). David F. Sandberg sets a relentless pace from the opening minutes and rolls out one scare after another, you only have a maximum of 5 minutes to breathe, which is great; the last film to sech such a pace was Drag me to Hell. The idea is very functional, whenever it's dark danger is near, you are worried about all the characters, because their lives are really on the line, and the ghost, even though it's mostly in the dark, is scary, makes disturbing noises, and most importantly is on the scene very often. On the plus side, the half-hour finale with an unexpected twist makes Lights Out an intense 80-minute spectacle that should appeal to anyone who is at least a little bit at home with horror. The Conjuring gives a better impression in terms of story, visuals and setting, whereas Lights Out relies only on scares and it worked. Story 6/10, Atmosphere 9/10, Gore 4/10, Visuals 7/10, Action 8/10, Suspense 9/10, Humour 3/10. Entertainment 8/10, Scares 9/10. 85%. (22/07/2016)

As a small-scale film, this movie is quite fine. What’s also fine however is how the director took the original idea, which had been made into a short film, and managed to turn it into a feature film. It’s nothing complicated, but it works. It’s not silly at all. People behave the way real people do rather than behaving like rubber figurines on paper. So, all in all? A pleasant horror movie surprise – it won’t offend you and while it won’t make you excited either, it gets the mission fulfilled with a full number of survivors. (15/12/2017)

You can't shine a light. We’ve probably never had a similarly intense and original scare in cinemas, and in today's horror competition, it's hard to imagine a more effective way to make the audience's return home through darkened streets as unpleasant as possible. It goes full speed ahead from the start and, without any unnecessary talk, we are served an intelligent horror plot spiced up with such a thick atmosphere and such a scary monster that I would grunt with joy if I didn't have my vocal cords clenched with nervousness. Plus the flawless escalation, thanks to which the evil doesn't stop scaring even towards the end, the reasonable runtime and of course the absolutely disarming beauty of Terasa Palmer, thanks to whom I didn't breathe even in the less tense scenes. Pointless to complain and whine, that's all we can ask for. (25/07/2016)

Already running out of funny ideas for how to describe these boogeyman in da house horror movies for a first date. At the very least, the darkness-addicted villain theme could have made for an interesting filmmaking challenge, where you could have played an action game with the protagonists with cones of light in the style of PC games like Alan Wake, which the lazy filmmakers probably didn't feel like doing, so they repeat the one trick of approaching evil in a flickering environment. It would have been cool to see how Buster Keaton would have handled a similar plot. (09/11/2016)