Horror film "And the lights go out": audience reviews

In 2013, the Internet literally blew up a short film by David Sandberg Lights Out. In the wake of its popularity, Hollywood producers decided to make a full-fledged horror film "And the lights go out." Reviews of the audience about this picture, released in 2016, were less enthusiastic than about the short film of the same name. What is the reason for such a cool reception?

2016 movie “And the lights go out”

David Sandberg became the director of the project again, he, in collaboration with Eric Heisserer, wrote the script. With a very modest budget of $ 5 million, Sandberg managed to get the leading roles of such famous actresses as Maria Bello (“The Ugly Coyote Bar”, “Life by Jane Austen”) and Teresa Palmer (“The Warmth of Our Bodies”, “I - the fourth ").

Despite the fact that many short film fans were disappointed with the new horror movie, Lights Out managed to collect more than 147 million at the box office and earn quite good, albeit average, ratings from critics and viewers.

Plot

If in Lights Out there was one heroine who suffered from attacks of a ghost, then in the movie “And the lights go out”, the whole family appears in the center of the plot.

The mother of the family, Sofia, was treated for depression in a psychiatric clinic as a child. There she met a very strange girl named Diana. This patient had a severe allergy to light - in the sun, her skin was covered with burns. After experimental treatment, Diana died, but her ghost (gaining strength in the dark) began to accompany Sophie all her life, becoming more active when the woman became depressed and stopped taking drugs.

Realizing his dependence on Sophie, the ghost tried with all his might to make his childhood friend suffer. It was Diana who killed the first husband of the woman, and also scared her daughter to escape from home.

Years passed, contrary to the efforts of a ghost friend, Sophie’s life got better. She married Paul again and gave birth to a son, Martin. All this time she was more or less adequate and Diana rarely appeared.

However, during the next crisis, Sophie the ghost killed her husband, which brought her friend to a nervous breakdown and gained power. To control the unfortunate woman, Diana decided to take on her young son. But the eldest daughter of the woman - Rebecca, who by that time had become quite adult, found out the truth and wanted to save her brother and mother.

The problems of the picture

Despite the fact that the genre of the film “And the lights go out” is horror, some reviews indicate that the audience saw in it the elements of a psychological drama about the problems of parents and children.

The main victim of the ghost - Sophie, from childhood was susceptible to bouts of manic-depressive psychosis.

Despite the fact that she gave birth to two children, the woman still could not cope with the disease, in addition to him, she suffered from psychological infantilism. In fact, for her the ghost of Diana was a kind of shield, behind which Sophie was used to hiding from all problems. Despite her mature age, a woman psychologically remained a little girl all her life, seeking help. Her growing up occurs only at the very end of the picture, when, in protecting children, the heroine sacrifices herself.

Sophie's eldest daughter is Rebecca, in fact her complete opposite. Due to the infantilism of the mother, the disappearance of her father and Diana’s attacks, the girl had to learn to take care of herself on her own rather early.

Disappointed in her mother, Rebecca began to avoid emotional closeness with other people. However, acquaintance with her brother and a common misfortune aroused her maternal instinct. In the picture, the girl actually played the role of mother, not only for Martin, but also for Sophie.

Another important problem raised in the picture is the “blindness” of social services. So, seeing that the boy has problems in the family, he is still left with his mentally unbalanced mother. At the same time, a sister who is completely adequate is denied custody of her brother due to the fact that pictures not with fluffy rabbits, but with skeletons hang in her home.

“And the lights go out” (2016): film reviews

Despite the very impressive fees, the film received average ratings. So most consider it weaker than a short film. At the same time, it was noted that the picture was made very soundly, although quite predictably.

The audience especially liked the well-chosen music of the composer Benjamin Wallfisch, as well as the minimal amount of computer special effects.

However, most people who watched the tape “And the lights go out” left reviews about the film mediocre, calling it less scary than a short film and full of stamps. Also, the audience was dissatisfied with the happy ending, considering that the open end would be more intriguing. At the same time, the Sandberg horror is almost unanimously recognized as a worthy spectacle, but at one time.

Reviews of the plot of the film: advantages and disadvantages

Despite the carefully written script of the picture “And the lights go out”, the reviews of some viewers rightly point to the plot “holes”.

For example, it is not clear how all these years Sophie lived with a ghost and both her husbands did not notice this. Also, if Diana is able to turn off the electricity, as shown at the end, what prevented her from doing this earlier, trying to kill Rebecca and Martin?

Also far-fetched is the girl’s find of a box with records of Diana’s illness. Who collected all this and why kept it all these years? Sophie - it is unlikely, otherwise she would have long understood who her friend really is and got rid of her. Paul also could not, otherwise he would have known with whom he was dealing, and would not have died so stupidly.

The content of the box looks rather ridiculous, many viewers ironically noted that there are not enough videos and scans of secret documents there.

At the same time, the majority liked the plot of the film “And the lights go out”. The reviews of some viewers contain praise for the well-thought-out backstory of the ghost and its clearly indicated abilities.

Reviews about acting

Due to the modest budget, the picture involves few locations and special effects. The actors of the project "And the lights go out" diligently tried to compensate for these shortcomings. Feedback from viewers on this subject is almost unanimously positive.

So, the play of Maria Bello (Sophie) is recognized as simply magnificent. Her heroine evokes a range of conflicting emotions: from pity to fear and charity.

Theresa Palmer (Rebecca) in the picture appeared with a somewhat unusual make-up for herself, however, she perfectly played a lonely frightened girl fighting with the unknown.

The audience especially liked the realistic game of the young Gabriel Bateman, who embodied the image of Martin. And the charming Alexander DiPersia (Bret), many prophesy a career like Bradley Cooper.

Horror "And the lights go out": reviews from US viewers

Of the 147 million profits at the box office, 67 earned a picture in their homeland and in Canada.

The Rotten Tomatoes website has rated 77% of the film "And the lights go out." The reviews of its visitors were initially positive in a hundred percent of cases, but later negative reviews also appeared, as a result of which the average score of the tape dropped to 6.3 out of 10 (5.988 out of 10 on the Russian “Kinopoisk”).

The slightly less well-known American site Metacritic rated the film 58 out of 100 possible, and CinemaScore classed the picture as class B (with gradations from A + to F).

Entertaining facts

• This film is the debut work of David Sandberg in the genre of feature films. Previously, the director shot only short films.
• The performer of the role of Rebecca - Australian Teresa Palmer, had previously starred in the horror "Curse 2".
• Shortly after the release of the film “The Lights Go Out” (2016), the reviews gathered on Rotten Tomatoes were only positive, earning 100%. However, after a couple of weeks her rating fell to 77%. Because of this, there were rumors about the speculation of the producers of the picture, artificially overestimating the results of the film in order to warm up the interest of the audience.
• Actress Lotta Losten, who starred in the short film, appears in one of the episodes of the film - it was she who first saw the ghost of Diana in the basement of Paul's office.
  

Contrary to the expectations of fans of the short film Lights Out, its full version - “And the lights go out” - turned out to be less interesting and frightening. At the same time, according to the majority of viewers around the world, this movie turned out to be very worthy in its genre, which in recent years is very rare.