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'Lights Out' is a Rare and Beautiful Thing

Lights Out is an example of that rare and beautiful thing, a superior low-budget movie that depends for its effects on suggestions of things that lurk in the shadows and baffle the understanding, but never become clear enough to be understandable.

The horrific thing is named Diana, and Maria Bello says it is her best and maybe only friend; but I refer to Diana as an "it" for good reason: on rare occasions she seems to be a human being, but usually she is just a silhouette in the dark, or a withered arm that begins to rot as soon as the light hits it, or a cartoon vampire, or some kind of supernatural power that levitates things, or just some mysterious bumpings and breathings that you hear through the closed door. About the only thing that is gradually made clear is that she is not the hallucination that she started out seeming to be.

I rather wish Lights Out didn't keep repeating half-seen shadows in the background and sudden screams and bangings on the wall or doors slamming; but I must say that these stock devices are usually effective, as are things suddenly reaching from beyond the sides of the frame. And whatever cliches of the old black-and-white horror classics are employed, one such device is not used at all. All the characters, frightened though they may be, act like intelligent people confronted with a problem and facing it with courage and reason, whether they know what they're confronted with or not. Teresa Palmer is the heroine who never faints or runs away, and her boy friend accepts her wild tales and follows instructions whether he believes anything or not. Even child star Gabriel Bateman plays it straight and never breaks the reality.

All in all, Lights Out is just about exactly what a horror movie should be.