The 2016 horror movieLights Outhas a creepy title and an even eerier premise, leading up to an upsetting ending that no one can forget about. The movie deals with serious themes like mental health and family trauma.Lights Outhas a 75% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatomer and a 61% Audience Score. It was generally well-received thanks to its strong characters and the fact that watching people struggle to fight a demon in the dark is always going to be genuinely scary.
While the ending ofLights Outis tough to watch, the movie has been praised for its unnerving atmosphere. What happens duringLights Outand what is the movie based on?
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What Is Lights Out About?
Lights Outis about Rebecca (Teresa Palmer), a young woman who finds out that an evil ghost named Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey) is influencing her mother Sophie (Maria Bello). Rebecca’s stepbrother Martin (Gabriel Bateman) is having a tough time as a result, and Rebecca’s boyfriend Bret (Alexander DiPerisa) tries to be there for her during this challenging situation.
Lights Outcan be considered anunderappreciated 2010s horror moviesince it doesn’t get mentioned very often. It does tell an effective story about a family dealing with one person’s mental health struggles and doing their best to help them. Rebecca, Martin and Bret all care deeply about Sophie and wish that they knew how to be there for her even more. Complicating matters is Diana, the ghost who doesn’t want to leave Sophie alone.
As the title of the movie suggests, Diana is more powerful in the dark. While the characters attempt to ensure that the house is lit up at all times, Diana makes sure that no house in the neighbor has electricity, which foils their plan. Much of the plot consists of the main characters battling Diana and wondering if they can even stop her at all.
Diana is one of thescariest horror movie demonsbecause she targets anyone who is close to Diana. In the opening scene ofLights Out, she kills Sophie’s husband Paul (Billy Burke) when he is at work. Diana has a condition where she can’t look at light, which is why she has to be in total darkness. It’s possible to view Diana as a metaphor for what Sophie is dealing with, which is heartbreaking to think about.
What Is Lights Out Based On?
Lights Outis based on theLights Outshort film that was released in 2013. David F. Sandberg wrote, directed and produced the short film and Lotta Losten, his wife, played the main character who isn’t given a name.Lights Outis one of thescariest horror movies based on a short film.
TheLights Outshort film is a much simpler version of what becomes the full-length movie. The woman is in her house at night and realizes that there is a strange presence there. At the end, she sees a humanoid, who clicks off the light switch. The ending suggests that the ghost will kill the woman and that there is no way for her to escape. There are some impressiveshort horror films, including on YouTube. They each prove that a lot can be done in a short amount of time. It makes sense thatLights Outstarted as a short film since both have an incredibly creepy and memorable atmosphere.
How Does Lights Out End?
Lights Outis a memorableslow burn horror moviethat proves that everyone will always be scared of the dark. TheLights Outending sees Rebecca and Martin escaping from the house’s basement with help from two cops. When Diana’s shadow appears, Diana murders the cops, and then goes after Rebecca. Rebecca learns from Diana that Diana murdered Rebecca’s dad for being there for Sophie. WhileLights Outisn’t amovie about demonic posessionsince Diana doesn’t take over Sophie, Diana does make it tough for other people to get close to Sophie. This aspect of the film can be viewed as a metaphor for how alone people feel when struggling.
Diana hates that Rebecca is also helping Sophie and hurts her. Sophie takes her own life because she figures out that Diana is attached to her and as long as she is alive, Diana can affect people. This is heartbreaking to watch. Rebecca and Martin then sit in an ambulance and Bret tells them that Diana isn’t going to come back.
TheLights Outending is not without controversy since Sophie dies in such a violent way. It’s really sad to watch Sophie suffer throughout the movie.Lights Outis meant to tell a story about mental health, and while the ending is upsetting, it does show how serious depression is.
