LIGHTS OUT

Martin is a child who is certainly not living a very happy childhood: his father died recently at the hands of a supernatural and demonic presence that only manifests when the light is turned off, and his mother has fallen into a state of deep depression, accompanied by hallucinations that make her imagine she is talking to the malevolent figure that killed her husband. The little boy also has a half-sister named Rebecca, who has lived far from home for years and has cut ties with her mother due to her way of handling Martin's education and her stubbornness in not seeking treatment. Meanwhile, against the backdrop of these domestic diatribes, Diana, the demon with whom the mother speaks and has befriended, pulls the strings of the story and does everything possible to carry out her terrible plan to kill all the members of the already disastrous family. Thus begins the most classic of battles between good and evil, with Rebecca discovering unsettling secrets about her mother's and Diana's past. From the dawn of history, man, especially in childhood, has always been afraid of the dark and all the spaces wrapped in darkness where the mind can give free rein to all its imagination, imagining any creature, presence, and monsters of all kinds. Drawing inspiration from this atavistic terror, in 2013 the young director David F. Sandberg made a short film titled "Lights Out", destined to become a small gem of tension and macabre atmospheres. In this brief work of less than 3 minutes, a woman sees a disturbing silhouette materialize as soon as she turns off the light and darkness falls. A very interesting subject that could not leave James Wan, a successful director, indifferent. In recent years, he has created his own production empire that has reached notable heights in terms of box office, even if not always accompanied by at least sufficient average quality. What emerges is this "Lights Out", the debut feature for Sandberg himself, which represents yet another demonstration of how a good starting subject does not always suffice to put together a completely successful film. The result is indeed a film that is unsettling in some points, directed with a steady hand, but very stereotyped and with a plot too weak to captivate even the least genre-savvy audience. As happens with many films derived from short films, in this case as well, there is a clear impression that the director and screenwriter Eric Heissener had to perform real somersaults to transform a thin and meager subject into a more articulated story capable of supporting a duration of 80 minutes, with serious repercussions on originality and narrative freshness. Somersaults that translate into the insertion of an excessive amount of genre clichés, an improbable and far-fetched "explanation" to justify the presence of Diana and her origins, and, above all, a family intrigue that sees in the relationship between the mentally disturbed mother and her son and in the elaboration of grief a nod, albeit veiled, to that "Babadook" - and more generally to all other psychological horrors - which, on the other hand, could count on a decidedly more solid plot and a more accurate characterization of the characters. But this "Lights Out" also has cards to play in its favor, and, almost as if to mirror the setting of the protagonists' house, the film presents many shadows but also some lights. Sandberg, in fact, manages to score several scenes of absolute tension, relying on a really unsettling boogeyman that takes the form of this wild woman, with long claws and her face wrapped in darkness, and on a photography that proves very suitable for playing on the fear of the dark mentioned above; a significant example is the very first sequence in which Diana manifests herself in a poorly lit corridor with her silhouette appearing in the distance ready to attack the unfortunate victim. In short, if from the narrative point of view the young debuting director still shows limits to be improved over time, on the more purely technical side, on the other hand, the positive notes abound and are a sign of a talent already evident from the short film. In the cast, more than convincing performances stand out, especially those of Maria Bello and Teresa Palmer, respectively in the roles of a depressed and ambiguous mother and a daughter who knows how to go beyond a character that, at least in appearance, may seem like the typical beauty without personality. "Lights Out", in the end, is a film that is halfway successful, pleasant, and capable of delivering some healthy and genuine scares, a thing nevertheless not evident these days given the products that have passed on the big screen in the recent period.