Lights Out

One of the very few horror movies to actually rattle my nerves, Lights Out walked right into my heart and never really went away, though despite being terrified of the being in the movie, I was also fascinated by the simple pluck on our psychological strings that allowed me to view this movie so personally, because really: who has never been afraid of the dark?

Sophie suffers from strong mental health issues, depression and delusions, often talking to an imaginary friend when things become too overwhelming. Her daughter, Rebecca, has moved out, not being able to deal with her mother’s issues, and Sophie’s son Martin still lives in the house. One night Martin sees his mother talking to an actual figure in the darkness of her bedroom, and horrified he doesn’t sleep a blink. As he goes to school the next morning, school staff notice, and upon failing to reach Sophie, they phone Rebecca, who takes him home. To make amends, Sophie offers her son a movie night, and tells him the story of Diana, her friend from when Sophie was institutionalized, explaining to him that Diana was the figure he saw. Terrified, he escapes his mother’s house to go sleep at Rebecca’s.

His sister assures him he’s got nothing to worry about, that Diana is just a memory, confining in him that she herself had nightmares about the photosensitive mental case when she was younger. But soon, as soon as the lights are turned off, the siblings get an unwanted visitor, and find out that Diana is very, very real.

As a supernatural horror movie, this work of art plays on a very real fear most of us have at some point in our life. Because, just maybe, just maybe, there is something hiding in the dark when we turn off the lights.

Highly recommended for any horror fan!