Teresa Palmer kept in the dark in monster horror flick Lights Out

REVIEW: Teresa Palmer finds the electrical pulse in monster horror flick

Lights Out

Three stars

Director David F. Sandberg

Starring Teresa Palmer, Maria Bello, Gabriel Bateman

Rating M

Running time 81 minutes

Verdict Switched on horror debut

SOME things just go bump in the night. Others pack a vertebrae-cracking wallop.

David F. Sandberg’s ruthlessly efficient horror debut doesn’t waste any time in introducing moviegoers to its supernatural shadow-dweller.

Ignoring the popular school of thought that says, when left to their own devices, audiences will always imagine something much scarier than a filmmaker can come up with on screen, the first-time feature director reveals his malevolent monster in the first few minutes.

And he does this by way of a jump scare which he then basically repeats for the next 70 or so minutes.

What’s surprising is how effectively Sandberg recycles what is essentially his one decent party trick.

Heightened by what feels like a collective fear of the dark, it works every time.

The first victim, Billy Burke, is dispatched in the opening sequence, which is set in a warehouse with no natural lighting (for most of the film’s interior shots, it’s unclear as to whether it’s night or day. Casinos use a similar tactic, unsettling gamblers’ body clocks so they don’t know when to go home.)

From there, the story jumps to Teresa Palmer’s apartment above a seedy tattoo parlour.

Palmer, or rather her character, Rebecca, exhibits a tough exterior to the world to hide her psychological bruises.

When her young brother Martin (Gabriel Bateman) asks her to pick him up from school — their mother Sophie (Maria Bello) can’t be reached — the estranged daughter and sister is forced to confront some of those old traumas.

When they arrive at the family home, Rebecca’s psychologically unstable mother fills in a few more details.

But if Rebecca and her baby brother are going to survive their encounter with this malevolent, paranormal avenger, they are going to have to get to the bottom of Sophie’s mysterious visit to a mental institution when she was just a child.

It’s hard not to compare Lights Out to Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook, which explores similar thematic territory, but in a much more sophisticated and multi-layered manner. Sandberg, however, didn’t set out to make that kind of film.

Judged on its economical own terms, Lights Out is a solid piece of horror craftsmanship.

Palmer is convincingly resourceful as a young woman who thought she’d left her childhood nightmares behind.

Films like this often succeed or fail on the strength of the child actor at their core.

Bateman is strangely engaging. Even as the credits roll, it’s not entirely clear whether this kid actually knows more than he’s letting on.

Lights Out is now screening

Originally published as Teresa Palmer kept in the dark in monster horror flick Lights Out