I got to see 'Lights Out', the feature film based on the internet short of the same name. It is a horror movie built around the premise of a ghost/monster that only appears in darkness.
Here is how 'Lights Out' works as a horror movie:
-Show a spooky thing
-Continue showing a spooky thing
-Have a character stare at the spooky thing while making a 'buh?' face
-Continue showing a spooky thing
-Have the spooky thing jump at the character while a loud noise plays.
Here is how you watch 'Lights Out' if you are a 20-something midwestern college girl.
-When a character is introduced, enters a scene, leaves a scene, opens a door, turns around, or looks at something, say 'Oh, he gonna die!'
-Whenever the lights flicker, go dim, or go out completely, which happens pretty frequently considering the premise of the film, say 'OH SNAP!'
-Whenever the aforementioned spooky thing jumps, make sure to scream in a high-pitched staccato directly into the ear of the person sitting in the row in front of you.
And here are my feelings on the movie that are independent from the circumstances in which I watched it:
'Lights Out' is a movie that's pretty clearly about abusive relationships. The mother character is haunted by the ghost of a spooky evil girl she knew when she was institutionalized for her depression, who has convinced her that it's her friend. The ghost then proceeds to prey on her when she's at her most vulnerable, isolate her by killing her husband and making her think he abandoned her, prevent her from taking her medication, and drive away her children who want to see her get better. The two children of the movie have taken opposite paths with respect to their mother. The older daughter has decided that she can't stand living with the mother she thinks is crazy, and decides to leave, while the younger son feels that it's his responsibility to stay and support her. The decision of whether to stay or leave when faced with an abusive parental relationship is an interesting conflict to explore, and has a lot of potential as a theme for a horror movie. Let's see where they go with this!
So, the climax of the film comes around, and the mother comes to the realization that the ghost is not her friend, gains its strength by abusing her, and is a danger to her and her children. She proceeds to protect her children, and stop the ghost, by blowing her own brains out with a handgun, and that's the end of the movie. Like, seriously? You couldn't have come up with a more thematically consistent ending than that? If you're in an abusive relationship and it's hurting your children, you should just kill yourself?
Fuck you movie, I'm gonna go watch The Babadook a million more times and never sleep again.
