Lights Out - When Horror Should Stay Short

The short film Lights Out (directed by David F Sandberg, 2013)was so successful that three years after it was made, it was adapted into a full length feature film. Unfortunately, this did the shorter version an injustice, and sparks the question of if shorter horror is scarier.

The premise of Lights Out (also directed by Sandberg, 2016) is that there is a woman who appears only when you turn off the lights, and she has a grudge against an unlucky family.

It’s interesting that the end of this movie sparked a conversation on idealising suicide, because what stuck out to me was the horror cliché of ‘the mad.’ Though it’s brief, this films backstory deals with an asylum, and in a time honoured tradition, it’s the children in there that are the horror, and not any inhumane treatments. This is important because focusing on the patients others them – they are ‘weird’ and ‘not like us,’ and that’s an incredibly damaging narrative to portray. Considering the movie is meant to be a discussion on mental health, particularly depression, this film seems out to stigmatise it further. After all, are we meant to think that Sophie (Maria Bello), who suffers from depression, is a good mother? Or does the film put us on our protagonist, Rebecca (Teresa Palmer)’s side. Though the film tries to put this into a grey area, there’s no real discussion around it, or what it’s like for Sophie. We are told through Rebecca that Sophie is mad when we know that, in this universe, she is not. (Another time honoured cliché of the horror genre.)

And there’s nothing wrong with clichés – there’s a reason they are popular and that is because generally they are enjoyable. But they are enjoyable when done well, or when a film does something different with them. Here, it’s a run of the mill, step by step process that doesn’t add that much. Which is a shame, because the details of Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey) - our 'monster'’s condition and the tie in to her supernatural powers is clever. The concept of this movie is an interesting one – one that definitely makes you look behind you when turning off the lights that night. Something appearing in the dark but not in the light, getting closer and closer, is an original and scary monster to play with.

Unfortunately, the rest of Diana's backstory falls into The Ring, or Halloween territory. There’s just something inherently evil about this character, and that’s it. It’s a narrative that we’ve seen before and that feels lazy compared to how much this film is trying to push to be different. Not to mention that half of the horror we have of Diana comes from not seeing her. (Much like the fear that Samara invokes.) As soon as she reveals her face, she loses her intensity. Becomes more of a Halloween mask than a palpable villain. A witch that we've seen before.

So, Lights Out, whilst capable, is feels like its walking well-trodden boards.

The short film, however, has much more impact. It won the Bloody Cuts Horror Challenge and Sandberg received best director. The premise is the same, but the film is much more simple. The bare bones of a woman turning a light off, seeing a figure, turning it on, and not seeing anything. There’s two rooms to the set and that works in the film’s favour. It traps the audience with our woman. We don’t see a door for her to escape out of. (Because if there was one, it’s a sure bet that any sensible person would run out of it.)

This monster is difficult to talk about. Because we get the barest glimpse and no story behind it. And that works. Works so much better than a long-winded backstory that blames the inherent nature of a little girl. This is a ghost. And it’s a scary one. The abrupt cut after finally seeing its face makes sure that the image sticks in your brain. Actually, looking back, I found my imagination had exaggerated the image into something scarier.

And what happens after that? That’s where real horror lies. The unknown. The fact that we don’t know anything about this creature – don’t know how to stop it – is what makes Lights Out the short film so much scarier than it’s long form successor. It plants its core idea in your head. The short film is the reason I look behind me when I turn off the lights – not the long one.

Overall, lack of information and letting audience imagination take over can sometimes be a very powerful thing. Whilst Lights Out was a mediocre horror film, it’s the short one that I won’t be able to re watch.