Lights Out (2016)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Lights out |
| Original title | Lights out |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2016 |
| length | 81 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | David F. Sandberg |
| script |
Eric Heisserer , David F. Sandberg |
| production | James Wan |
| music | Benjamin Wallfisch |
| camera | Marc Spicer |
| cut |
Michel Aller , Kirk M. Morri |
| occupation | |
| |
Lights Out (German: "Lights out") is an American horror film by the Swedish director David F. Sandberg from 2016 . It is about the half-siblings Rebecca and Martin, who have always seen an eerie female figure when it is dark in their mother's house, who disappears as soon as the light is switched on. The main roles were played by Teresa Palmer and Gabriel Bateman . a. See Maria Bello and Billy Burke . The film premiered on June 8, 2016 at the Los Angeles Film Festival and was released in cinemas across the US on July 22, 2016, with German theatrical release on August 4, 2016. By August 12, 2016, the film had shown almost 90 million worldwide US dollars, almost 60 million of which in cinemas in the USA.
action
The action begins in the evening in a warehouse where the divorced father Paul is still at work when his son Martin calls and reports that his mother Sophie is talking to herself again . Meanwhile a colleague notices a woman's silhouette when the light is switched off, but it disappears when the light is on. Scared, she wants to tell her boss about it, but he sends her home. After the phone call, he takes a look himself into the hall, where he is attacked by the woman. He can flee to his office, but the light goes out there. Shortly afterwards he is dragged into the darkness by the figure and cruelly killed.
A short time later, Rebecca, who broke off contact with her mother Sophie years ago and is now leading an independent life, is contacted by the youth welfare office. Her half-brother Martin has fallen asleep at school several times and looks disturbed. He tells Rebecca about her mother's conversations with herself , who has suffered from depression since childhood , and about a certain Diana with whom she keeps talking. This reminds Rebecca of her own repressed childhood, in which she too was terrified of the dark female figure in her house. To protect her half-brother, she takes Martin home, despite desperate protests from her mother Sophie. During the night the woman appears in her apartment and attacks her. With the lights on, they spend the rest of the night. In the morning she discovers the name "Diana" scratched into the wooden floor.
Shortly afterwards, a representative from the youth welfare office comes to Rebecca and brings Martin back home, where Rebecca and her friend Bret want to confront her mother later that day. However, nobody is home and the whole house is dark. In the study she comes across a photo of her mother with another girl who is not recognized. She also discovers a box with medical documents and a record of the interview taken in 1984 in a psychiatric clinic. Rebecca is shocked and takes the box. When she goes into Martin's room, she is attacked again by the woman who orders her to stay away. Only through Bret, who is alarmed by her cries for help, can she escape.
At home, Rebecca goes through the files. She finds out that her mother met Diana as a child in the mental hospital. Diana was found naked in the basement of a house at the age of 13, her father had committed suicide. She suffered from a rare skin disease that made it painful and almost impossible for her to walk into the light. She also had outbursts of anger and took Sophie to herself. Eventually she underwent experimental therapy in which she was exposed to 1200 watts of light and died. The case was covered up and Sophie tried to forget Diana, but she couldn't. Through a mysterious connection, Diana seems to continue to exist in the dark.
When Martin fled to Rebecca after another attack by Diana, the two decided to cut the connection between Sophie and Diana for good. They drive over to her and Rebecca tries to talk to her mother. This, however, blocks and presents Rebecca as crazy. She also blames her daughter for abandoning her after Rebecca's father left them. Angry, Sophie locks herself in her room, but sends Rebecca a slip of paper unnoticed that says "I need help". Rebecca and Bret decide to spend the night with all the lights on in the house. Diana causes the power to fail in the middle of the night, so that they can only move around the house with flashlights and candles. When Rebecca and Martin are in the basement with the fuses, Diana locks the door.
The two start a fire in the stove and find a black light flashlight that Rebecca uses to look around the cellar. She finds sentences written by Diana on the walls, as well as mannequins whose faces have been disfigured. Suddenly she is surprised by Diana, who cannot harm the black light. Only Martin can drive them away with the flashlight. Bret, who wants to help them both, is attacked by Diana, but manages to escape from the house and call the police. When this arrives, Rebecca and Martin can be freed from the basement, but Diana kills both police officers.
Rebecca sends Martin out to safety with Bret and wants to save her mother from the bedroom. Before that, Sophie had fought with Diana, because she had always sworn her not to harm her children. Rebecca is ambushed once more by Diana and thrown from the first floor. Diana threatens Rebecca to take her where she took her father. At that moment, her mother appears with a pistol that she points at Diana, but it does not hurt her. Since Sophie is the only connection that Diana, who is actually dead, still holds in the mortal world, she then holds the pistol to her head herself. Diana tries to stop Sophie, but she shoots herself and Diana disappears. When Rebecca comes out of the house, Bret promises her and Martin, now orphans, to always be there for her.
production
The Swedish director David Sandberg started producing short films for YouTube in 2006 . a. his wife participated as an actress. In 2013 he produced the three-minute short film Lights Out , which was uploaded to YouTube in 2014 and made famous by sharing it on Reddit . He got the idea on a whim, thinking that seemingly harmless silhouettes in the bedroom look much more threatening in the dark at night. He experimented with turning lights on and off and effects on a split screen. Sandberg was later contacted by producer Lawrence Gray, who wanted to turn the short film into a feature film and introduced Sandberg to producer James Wan .
Scriptwriter Eric Heisserer was also hired and worked with Sandberg on a plot that deals with the themes of a broken family, mental illness and supernatural beings from the past. The budget was about five million US dollars. Sandberg's inspiration for the character Diana came from the idea that not a child should have an “ imaginary friend ”, but an adult, which, according to Sandberg, should be more terrifying. Sandberg noted that some of his ideas that didn't make it into the film could potentially find use in a sequel. Whether a sequel would be produced depends on how successful the film will be.
criticism
The film received an average rating of 6.3 on Rotten Tomatoes and achieved 76 percent on the “Tomatometer”, which means that Lights Out is considered “fresh” there. TV-Media magazine stated that the film lacked “a veritable arc of suspense; the ominous creature named Diana finally appears just a few moments after the start of the film ”and further noted:“ The musical background to Diana's performances, which are nevertheless very scary at times, is also not very subtle. ”The Filmstarts website writes in its conclusion : “In the horror scenes just as effective as creative shocker, but around too much time is wasted with unnecessary explanations.” The website kino-zeit praised the line-up of the actors, but criticized “that this ambivalence between real spook and metaphor no capital is struck ”that in the end everything is explained and there is no more room for real fear.
Web links
- Lights Out in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Lights Out atRotten Tomatoes(English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Lights Out . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; July 2016; test number: 161 026 K).
- ↑ Lights Out (2016) - Release Info accessed on August 23, 2016
- ↑ Box office / business for Lights Out (2016 / II) Retrieved on August 23, 2016
- ↑ WarnerBros.co.uk 10 things you may not know about David F Sandberg. Article dated July 21, 2016, accessed August 23, 2016
- ↑ a b How David Sandberg turned a viral-short sensation into a horror feature with 'Lights Out' Article dated June 8, 2016, accessed on August 23, 2016
- ↑ a b c Sinister Seven: Into the dark with David F. Sandberg, Director & Co-Writer of LIGHTS OUT (engl.) Interview published on July 21, 2016, accessed on August 23, 2016
- ↑ Rotten Tomatoes Lights Out (2016), accessed August 23, 2016
- ↑ tv-media Lights Out, accessed on August 23, 2016
- ↑ filmstarts.de Retrieved on August 23, 2016
- ↑ kino-zeit.de