David F. Sandberghas made massive leaps in his first few years as a director, with his fourth feature film being the newly releasedShazam! Fury of the Gods, but his first filmLights Outis where he’s at his best. This horror debut was a big move for Sandberg, after havingdirected short films for many years, but it wasn’ttechnicallythe firstLights Outfilm. That would be the short film of the same name, which Sandberg directed in 2013. This earlier version is only two minutes and 24 seconds long, but it manages to be even more terrifying than its eventual feature-length adaptation. While both films interestingly explore the general concept in their own unique ways, the short film that came first manages to hold more tension, scares, and mystery in less than 3 minutes than an entire 81-minute movie.
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What Is ‘Lights Out’?
The originalLights Outshort film is a great, bite-sized horror short. It follows a woman (Lotta Losten) as she’s going to bed, and as she shuts out the lights in her house, somebody repeatedly appears in the shadows. Sandberg and his wife, Losten, made the film on a $0 budget in their home, using equipment that he had garnered over the years. Using simple lighting and editing techniques, Sandberg was able to make the film without having to rely on others and show his skills as a resourceful, smart filmmaker. First released in the Bloody Cuts Horror Challenge, the film would go on to be released on YouTube and Vimeo. Here, it went viral and got Sandberg the attention of the movie industry, leading to the 2016 feature-length adaptation.
Lights Outis a horror film directed by David F. Sandberg and released in 2016. This film tells the story of Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) and Martin (Gabriel Bateman), two siblings who are forced to face a supernatural being who is attached to their mother and only appears in the shadows. Now, the two of them must unravel the mystery behind this unseen presence before anyone gets hurt.Lights Outis a mostly effective horror experience. Being that it was produced byJames WanofThe Conjuringfame, there’s a certain type of horror that you may expect when going into this movie.It’s a pretty approachable popcorn horror movie. Granted, there isn’t much blood and gore, it looks about as shiny as all James Wan productions do, and the tension isn’t unbearable like the most effective of horror movies. It is fun though and provides an enjoyable enough ride for horror fans everywhere.
The ‘Lights Out’ Feature Loses the Mystery
The film falters in what happens with manyshort-film-turned-featuresituations. In these instances, what was once a simple, cut and dry premise, now has to be fleshed out across a much longer runtime. In the case ofLights Out, the movie begins intriguingly because you don’t know what’s going on with this supernatural entity or where it came from. Its opening scene is its best and is basically an elongated remake of the 2013 short film. The film starts out with Esther (Lotta Lotsen playing a character eerily similar to hers in the short), a factory worker closing up shop who starts seeing the shape of a long-haired human in the shadows. She goes and gets her boss (Billy Burke), who is then hunted and killed by the being. It’s a fantastic horror set piece! This all goes down the drain pretty quickly, with all of its supernatural elements becoming over-explained. Right around the halfway point, you’re left with hardly any mystery. It’s a bummer, but the rest of the movie still proves to be entertaining.
The original 2013 short film is a different story. Sandberg’s short film has the privilege of being a lean and mean horror experience. Here, you won’t find long scenes of expository dialogue, going through documents that explain the villain’s backstory, or anything along those lines. The villain here is just a creepy supernatural presence, and that’s it! It’s wonderful. The first time you see it is the most effective. It’s just standing there and lurking in the shadows, reappearing every time the main character shuts the lights off. The image is recreated in the 2016 feature, but that film is so high quality and polished up that it loses the eerie touch that low-budget filmmaking can bring. In the short film, the shadows in this hallway scene are captured with a lower-quality camera, looking grainier and dirtier. When a horror film is overproduced, it really cuts back on the creepy factor.
Keep Things Minimal! It’s Scarier!
The sound in the short film is also much more minimal, and in return, more effective. In the feature, every sound effect is so overblown and overproduced. It’s a case of overcompensating for scares that really aren’t there. Not only that, the feature also has to make room for people to talk so, you know, it can have a story and all that. Understandable, but the short film’s lack of dialogue just leaves room for your mind to run and wonder where the supernatural entity might appear next. It would be hard to convince a big studio like Warner Bros. to basically make a silent feature-length version of theLights Outshort, but if done right, it probably would have been better. You’re never given room to let your ear perk up at the sound of something in the dark like you are in the short film’s bedroom scene. There, Sandberg just lets the camera linger on the hallway as the sounds of footsteps and creaks keep you on the edge of your seat.
All because of a little short film that he made in 2013, David F. Sandberg went on to have one of the craziest first decades of any current filmmaker. In just the last ten years, he made hisLights Outshort, adapted it to a feature-length for a major studio, made an Annabelle film inAnnabelle: Creation, then jumped into theworld of comic book movies withShazam!andShazam!: Fury of the Gods.It’s a well-deserved turn for the filmmaker, who has managed to stay humble in the wake of great success and has been outwardly grateful for those who helped him get where he is today. Regardless of the fact that he’s dropping one of the biggest tent pole movies of the year, we should never forget the original short that put him on the map. The 2016 feature is a lot of fun, butLights Out2013 rules.
