Lights Out Review

Story: When her little brother, Martin (played by Gabriel Bateman) experiences the same events that once tested her sanity, Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) works to unlock the truth behind the terror. But she soon comes face to face with an entity that has an attachment to their mother, Sophie (played by Maria Bello).

   Horror is a very hit or miss genre, sometimes you get a hit but most of the time you get a run of the mill generic stinker. In light of recent releases there have been many strong contenders into the horror genre. Films such as 2014's The Babadook to It Follows and then this year with The Witch and The Conjuring 2. I actually thought this would be a year with no real good horror films but man was I mistaken.

    Based on a 3 minute short by the same director, David F. Sandberg, the film deals with the greatess of all fear, the dark. In basic terms Lights Out does what Jaws did for sharks, making it impossible to go asleep in the dark. Its the basic primal fear that all humans have, a fear of the dark, a fear of the unseen, the unknown.

  What I found really impressive is the lack of visual aid (aka CGI) no cheap lighted areas or a CGI monster. The lights are all real and project the real amount of light. It's very grounded and at times has a vibe similar to that of The Ring. Composer Benjamin Wallfisch is defiantly the man behind one of the similarities. The Ring was one of my all tome favourite movies and Hans Zimmer's score was truly out of this world. Benjamin recreates that same haunting feeling of fear and loneliness. But also gives the jolts.

  Give credit where credit is due. Screenwriter Eric Heisserer had the toughest job at turning a 2 minute-3 minute short into a full length feature. He is well known in horror, though sadly he has had his share of misses, rebooting the Nightmare on Elm street franchise. He had a minor achievement in the prequel to The Thing, at least for me. Eric though turned things around when he concluded (for now) one of the longest running franchises, Final Destination. He closed the book on that series and made by far the best of the bunch. For Lights Out, Eric has done an excellent job crafting a story with well rounded characters and a back story that is not too cliche. Still, Eric deserves credit as the story isn't boring and the third act ends on a very harrowing note, classic horror.

  Both David and Eric, along with Ben, have crafted a finely tuned supernatural thriller. Casting for the film has also got to be commended. Teresa Palmer returns to her horror roots (her last horror film was The Grudge 2) and she is perfect in the role, not only that but she has a striking resemblance to Maria Bello (Prisoners). Both Teresa and Bello give solid performances for a somewhat average horror movie. Its not often you get such strong talent in a horror film. Teresa plays Rebecca with real humour and fear. When she's scared she literally cries. She makes Rebecca her own and comes off extremely likeable. Maria has the toughest role as she plays a mother on anti-depressents. I've had my doubts about Maria after she replaced Rachel Wiez in the third chapter of one of my all time favourite franchises. Here though she wins me over as she shows the intense struggle and suffering that Sophie goes through as Diana, the spiritual entity, eats away at her. Twilight actor Billy Burke as a small swing as the step-father of Martin and Rebecca. He kicks off the film with new comer Lotta Losten, who starred in the short in which the film is based. He makes a good impression with the small screen time he's got and his death hangs over the first bit of the film, hell his death was by far the scariest thing in the film.

   Child actor Gabriel Bateman is loveable in the role of Martin, a complete opposite of his character on American Gothic. He's not one of those annoying kids that you hope dies within the first few minutes he's on screen. I grew to care for the kid and felt he was the one with most of the brains, sometimes Rebecca does a few questionable actions. And last there's Alexander DiPersia. He plays Bret, the hot boyfriend. Now, hear me out, the guy is not some dumb jock, he's actually pretty smart and loveable just like Martin. Bret is another solid, likeable character and does not play unfair games or accuse Rebecca of being crazy.

  That is one of the best things about the film, its grounded and realistic. The characters all have some form of depth and are not 1 sided. I even wouldn't mind seeing a follow-up with Rebecca, Martin and Bret.

Lights Out is a frightening, realistic thriller with a solid story and likeable characters. Truth, it isn't too scary but this is coming from someone who just loves horror so to the average film goer, yeah you'll need to sleep with the lights on tonight.

Rating - B+

The Conjuring 2

Story: Ed and Lorraine Warren travel to North London to help a single mother raising four children alone in a house plagued by a malicious spirit. 

The Conjuring was one of the most terrifying movies of the summer and the best films James Wan has ever directed. He said he was done with horror and moved on to directing Fast 7. But here we are, and here he is as he returns to the franchise he started with The Conjuring 2.  Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return as the Warrens.

This time out we follow the Warrens as they deal with a premonition Lorraine has when working on the Amityville Horror case.  Lorraine learns that if they don't stop helping people deal with the paranormal her husband Ed will die. This leads them to not taking anymore cases and leaving behind the paranormal for good. But as time goes on, non believers start coming out of the wood work, which annoys Ed to no end.

Meanwhile, a family of four in North London is dealing with a nasty poltergeist and possession as the youngest daughter is slowly becoming possessed. The case began gaining attention as the situation began getting worse, furniture moving on its own.  Eventually, the Warrens are called in to investigate on behalf of the church.  Lorraine is against it but is convinced by Ed to help.

There are naysayers (played by Franka Potente) who believe the youngest daughter and mom are making the whole thing up just to get money/publicity. Its one of the aspects I enjoyed about the sequel in how it includes characters who are non-believers. That change in the general public opinion about the believability on ghosts and demonic possession. Its a great addition to the film and a perfect continuation from where the last film left off.

Its fantastic to have Vera and Patrick return to the lead roles. Vera continues to grow in the role of Lorraine and adds more layers to an already fabulous performance. Same with Patrick, he continues to develop Ed as both a loving husband and caring father. Sterling Jerins and Shannon Kook make small returns as Judy Warren and Drew Thomas. Sterling gets a legitimate amount to do as the daughter of the Warrens but sadly Shannon makes a blink and you'll miss him cameo. I wish he had a bigger role in the film but with the change in the times in the film certain characters would not remain around forever.

The follow-up does continue to bring the scares. James has a real talent for bringing the thrills and scares and he did get me a few times. He created some terrific new spirits/villains. One let down though was the amount of CGI used in the film. While it isn't a total lot, it is an upturn from the first film as the first one barely used any CGI. The spirits in this film are seen more and the CGI is than used to exemplify the scare factor of the spirits. That and some of the fake out scares were a bit of a let down for me but that is it.

Joseph Bishara continues to craft a fantastic score for these films, adding depth and fear to an already dark and scary film. He brings back themes from the previous film, continues to develop them and he even brings back Mark Isham to compose the family/romantic themes for the warrens.

As with the cast, they are fantastic. Madison Wolfe is by far a stand out here as she plays the part of the possessed daughter. While at times she is slightly laughable, she gets better and ends up being pretty fantastic. Frances O'Connor is a revelation as she plays her part of the conflicting mother with amazing skill and velocity. She is brilliant and is a fantastic edition to the cast, by far matches the talent of Lily Taylor from film one. Bonnie Aarons and Javier Botet are terrifying in the roles of the demon nun and the crooked man. Bob Adrian does brilliance in the role of Bill Wilkins. Franka and Simon work very well off each other and are both amazing talents. They both give believable performances on the stances their characters take in the film; Franka is the naysayer/non-believer and Simon plays the part of the one who wants to believe.

The best part of this film is the big twist near the end. Just when you think things are over, a big bomb shell drops and everything you thought was true is put into question! It really made the movie and was a great idea by the filmmakers.

As for the look and feel of the film it is darker in tone from the first, being set in London there is the sense of it being dreary. I loved the costume design and the set work, very brilliantly done and while some pieces looked like sets for the most part it all had a good solid sense of realism.

The Conjuring 2 may have the sense of a hollywood picture but still provides amazing thrills and scares, fantastic performances and a great story that continues the journey of Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Rating: A-