What were we most afraid of as children? Ghosts may come to mind when we think of ghosts, but what really scared us as children was the fear of something lurking in a dark corner. This is the premise that Lights Out, a 2016 film directed by David F. Sandberg and starring Teresa Palmer, explores.
In the film, Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) believed that she had forgotten her childhood fears when she left home. In her childhood, when the lights went out at night, she was never sure of what was real. Now her brother Martin (Gabriel Bateman) is experiencing the same unexplained and horrifying events that once jeopardized her safety and sanity. With a mysterious relationship with her mother (Maria Bello), her supernatural presence returns to torment her entire family.
In horror movies, the scares often have a deeper meaning or are related to mental illness. In the film, this haunting presence symbolizes depression, often represented by the color black, signifying emptiness and depletion of happiness. Similar to films like “The Babadook” and “Smile,” the film deftly incorporates themes of mental illness, depicting how mental illness can cast a shadow and dim the light in people’s lives. .
In the film, Maria Bello’s character clearly suffers from depression, and has probably struggled with it since childhood, which affects most of her relationships. Throughout the film, she appears emotionally distant from her children, and this may have later influenced her decision to run away. However, she also seems to be protective of her children, perhaps fearing that her own illness will affect her children as well, and she keeps a certain distance. In several scenes, her children are also shown to be in contact with that haunting presence, and they too experience similar emotions and are at risk of developing depression themselves. It suggests that there is a possibility.
The film is narrowly focused, with only a few characters and two major locations. This intensive setting allows the audience to be deeply immersed in the story. The concept of an evil being lurking in the shadows and attacking when the lights go out is truly frightening. In the movie, this entity even has the ability to manipulate light, making viewers nervous that it could suddenly appear at any time.
As children, many of us were afraid to turn off the lights and go into our rooms because of horror movies where we saw something chasing us. In this movie, that fear becomes reality, keeping the audience on their toes and rooting for the protagonists to escape.
The film employs clever jump scares and other frightening elements. Although it has become somewhat predictable when the entity will appear, “Lights Out” is a solid choice for anyone looking for a decent horror movie to watch and enjoy.
