Lights Out (V) (2013) User Reviews

You'll want to leave the light on after watching.

[BA_Harrison · 8/10 · 28 April 2015]

A woman is about to go to bed when she notices something very weird and more than a little disturbing: whenever she turns out the hallway light, she can see the silhouette of a figure standing at the end of the hall, but when she turns the light back on, there is no-one there. The final time she turns out the light, the freaky figure has moved a lot closer. Taking no chances, the woman tapes the switch in the on position and gets into bed, but is terrified to hear strange noises in the hallway, and to see the light go out…

There's no shortage of horror shorts on YouTube that use their brief running time to creep out the viewer before attempting to give them a coronary; Lights Out uses this well-worn format (providing not one, but two potential heart attack moments), but still proves very effective thanks to skillful direction by David F. Sandberg, who wrings every last ounce of possible tension from his tale, and a great central performance from the actress playing the unfortunate victim of the supernatural creature. Lights Out might be predictable stuff—one knows full well how the film is going to end—but it does its job well, effortlessly scaring the bejeezuz out of the viewer as expected.

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for making my work colleague almost soil himself with fright. The big wuss!

Short, sweet, and to the point

[AstenCulloski · 8/10 · 26 November 2015]

Lights Out is a tiny jewel which more horror fans should know about. It's extremely simple and does nothing surprisingly well, but the fact that it's 3 minutes and so simple but still evokes that feel of horror is impressive to say the least. It deals with the "darkness brings evil" aspect many horror movies touch bases with at one point in the film; so there's nothing special about the idea behind Lights Out, it's the execution and cinematography. The cinematography is above average but also nothing incredible, the camera angles work and some are pretty clever and do a damn good job with the suspense, but is it something I've never seen before? No.

Where Lights Out shines is the mood, atmosphere, and emotion, and just how quickly is establishes it all (in under 2 minutes), and how it goes out with a bang. I'm not a fan of jump scares, I think they're typically very cheap ways to get some cheap short-lasting scares out of your audience and I have quite the aversion to their uncreativity. But the couple jump scares Lights Out uses I'm actually okay with because of how well executed they were. And when I say I'm glad a film had a jump scare in it, you know it must be special.

The feeling of dread, familiarity, sympathy, inevitability, and atmosphere was so well established within these 3 minutes, it makes me wish Lights Out was more well known by fellow horror fans.

Captures the essence of horror

[Horst_In_Translation · 8/10 · 4 November 2015]

"Light Out" is a very short little horror movie from 2 years ago written and directed by David F. Sandberg starring Lotta Losten. The first minute basically takes place in the hallway, the second in the woman's bedroom. I thought the first half was great, the second was good too. To me, horror films are most effective when there is some kind of unseen danger here and I really liked the idea that you could only see the monster when the lights were out. And the way it was suddenly so close to her was very scary. The ending was nice too, more with how we knew something would happen than with when it actually did. Losten played it well and this was very nicely written. I hope Sandberg will get a chance to go into full feature territory at some point. His work here looks promising to me and I highly recommend it. Certainly will check out his other short films soon as well. Thumbs up.

Excellent short horror film

[preppy-3 · 10/10 · 23 June 2015]

A woman is going to bed. She turns off the light in the hallway but then sees a silhouette of...something in the dark. She turns back on the light but there's nothing there. She turns it off again and it appears again. Again on and off...but now it's closer.

No dialogue in this one. Just VERY effective sound effects and some eerie music. The acting by the one person in the film is effective and it's very well-directed. All kidding aside--I slept with my bedside lamp on all night after watching this and I'm a huge horror fan that has seen hundreds of horror films! Quick, effective and very very scary.

so good it was made into a full length horror film

[lorcan-61881 · 9/10 · 15 October 2016]

Lights out(2013)is a short horror film that is about a young woman who is just about to go to bed when suddenly she starts seeing a unusual entity that only appears when she turns on the lights,this woman hides in her bed for about 2 minutes and nothing is there,she thinks shes safe and is about to turn of her lamp when she sees a monster of a creature crouched down on its knees with pupiless eyes and gives a horrifying scream as the lamp switches off and the creature probably kills her. Lights came out the day before new years eve. It became so famous it got 13,015,454 views on YouTube and it was even more famous a American film produced by James Wan was released in theaters. I loved this short horror,I got so scared at the end I just loved it,Lights out 2 will come out at one point,the year is unknown.

Nice Horror Short

[Michael_Elliott · 2 December 2016]

Lights Out (2013)

*** (out of 4)

Effective horror short from David F. Sandberg would be the bases for his feature length version from 2016. Basically a woman walks into her apartment and when she turns the lights off she sees a figure. When she turns the lights back on it's gone. Each time she turns the lights off the figure reappears. Obviously the suspense comes from the director building up how much closer the figure gets to the woman and for the most part this worked quite well. It clocks in at less than three minutes so the film obviously doesn't run along too long but it certainly makes an impression and especially the ending. Horror fans should enjoy this.

Where it all begun!

[Patient444 · 6/10 · 19 November 2017]

His favorite fear to develop is by far that of the dark. Most of Sandberg's work revolve around light, the absence of it, the way fear slithers through your bones when the bulb starts flickering.

When you lose your most important sense, in a already unfriendly territory, how will you react? What will you do? Putting a woman as the lead character (not just because she is his wife) makes for a deeper, more emotional impact.

A contrast between whats real and what's not, with a short fight for the light to stay on and then acceptance.

Cheers!

A very effective short film, "Lights Out" may make you dig your old night-light out of the closet...

[TedStixonAKAMaximumMadness · 8/10 · 19 October 2016]

Just a few short months ago, a fairly tense and exciting low-budget feature was released in theaters. "Lights Out" became a massive hit with its high-concept of a vengeful spirit that exists within shadows and darkness... audiences were hooked by its clever scares, solid visuals and competent atmosphere building. So much so in fact that a sequel is already well on the way, and its up-and-coming director David F. Sandberg has been tapped to helm the anticipated in-the-works sequel "Annabelle 2."

But lets take a look back just a few short years to the humble beginnings of this project. Back to 2013, when Sandberg unleashed a short-film of the same name onto the masses. A short film that of course went on to become the basis of this bonafide new hit.

"Lights Out" (2013) is at its core a very simplistic and elegant style experiment in fear. Lacking any complex narrative or proper character development, it instead uses its short running length and lack of dialog to build a highly effective and chilling sequence of terror through only expert use of lighting, suggestive camera angles and moody visuals. We follow a young woman (Lotta Losten, actress and wife of director Sandberg) preparing to retire to bed for the night, when she notices a mysterious silhouette in the distance whenever she turns off her hallway light... A figure that is seemingly staring right at her, waiting to strike. As tensions build, and the woman's fear grows, we swiftly move towards a startling and wickedly eerie climax...

A prime example of how to appropriately build an increasing and all- encompassing sense of dread, the short is amongst the strongest I've seen in recent memory. It's very deliberate and cleverly uses its time wisely, neither stringing out the short longer than it needs to be or needlessly abbreviating it. It knows just how long to take to allow the fear to grow to a boiling point and when to nail us with the scares and jumps. This is especially admirable in today's modern world of horror, where jumps without establishment and loud noises without atmosphere are taking over at a very alarming rate. It's refreshing to see a new filmmaker who knows to take just enough time before he strikes.

The short is not without a collection of flaws however, mild though they may be in the grand scheme of things. I did find that it lacks rewatchability due to its very short running time that is built around a singular sequence. Once you've seen it, you've wised up to the game, and thus it will never have that same impact on subsequent viewings. I also did find the climactic moments (which I will not spoil) to be a tad underwhelming. It was not quite enough of a payoff, ending with more of a whimper than a scream. Still, these are only minor flaws in an otherwise incredibly strong and stylish short. It's filled to burst with atmospheric tension and heart- stopping suspense, and there's a good chance that after watching it alone in the dark, you'll go digging through the closet or the attic, desperately searching for that old night light from when you were a child that you haven't used in years...

I give "Lights Out" (2013) a very good 8 out of 10. It's available free-to-view online, and it comes highly recommended from this fan of horror and suspense!

Sometimes less is more

[Rectangular_businessman · 7/10 · 27 November 2016]

For me, "Lights Out" was the most disappointing horror film of 2016. I found it terribly dull, with clichéd characters, predictable jump-scares and a repetitive plot that felt way too stretched in the worst possible manner...Honestly, I wish I had seen the short film which inspired that movie before, because it was much better in every single aspect.

I guess that the brevity of the short helped a lot to avoid everything that made the movie so bad (Like the flat and clichéd characters, the bad dialogue, the boring exposition, the pointless filler scenes and the cringe worthy resolution) but the truth is that "Lights Out" worked much better as a short film, going directly to the point in a quite effective way. And the final jump-scare that closes this short film was honestly far better done than anything from the feature-length version, which just feels redundant and unnecessary by comparison.

7/10

This was awesome

[DogFilmCritic · 8/10 · 26 October 2016]

I cant get enough of short horror films, and i saw the feature film based on this and frankly this was way better.

My reasons being as a short the story goes better this mysterious entity is lurking in the safeness of your House and you can just see it when you turn off the lights. Soner or later the lights will come out and walking away outside being dark well you feel trapped.

Again this Is why it works its short and scary it goes right to the point your are waiting for the next thing to happened with a few minutes left waiting for that twist to happened.

Shorts are the best way to show new and fresh ideas in horror.

Humorously horrific

[Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki · 6/10 · 21 July 2016]

Vastly superior to the 2016 film based on it, this has a woman frightened by a demonic figure whenever the lights are turned out. This plays well with the childhood reaction to being scared, by merely pulling the covers up over one's head, and shivering and hiding (whatever is frightening you cannot possibly get you under that thin sheet, right?)

That childlike innocence coming from a grown woman in this two- minutes- long short is amusing, and the creature haunting here is effectively creepy, and barely glimpsed, which creates a good balance of humour and horror, but at only two minutes forty two seconds in length, it's difficult to really get involved much with the character, or story.

Couldn't sleep for a couple of nights.

[bosswarrior33 · 10/10 · 26 January 2020]

David, wow man!! For only being 3 minutes long it fills like a eternity as we follow a somewhat older woman just doing her thing. And from there it goes completely down hill instantly, Everything from the camera shots to the smart editing, this was terrifying and hard to look away at the same time. If I was to rate it I'd give it a 10/10 no questions asked considering all the garbage short films that happen and while sole come out good, lights out is any horror or movie geeks dream of getting the crap scared out of them for 3 beautifully horrifying minutes.

Different

[jack_o_hasanov_imdb · 7/10 · 28 August 2021]

It was good as a short film. It wasn't bad. Actually it was good.

I don't like watching short films. I have no idea why I watched this movie :) But, i am glad to i did.

Lotta Losten

[Kirpianuscus · 19 February 2018]

At first sigh, nothing new. same thrill, chill and game of light as source of fear/tension. and the familiar end. but the film has a virtue who is unfair to ignore - Lotta Losten. after you see the short films of Sandberg, she becomes one of presence real impressive. for the image of ordinary woman, silent in many situations, innocent alwayys, front to different unusual challenges. result - a form of portrait of Sandberg art , present in few short films but giving to his wife the right role who becomes, after a walk across short films, axis of a fresh universe of horror.

Who's afraid of the dark?

[Pjtaylor-96-138044 · 8/10 · 7 December 2021]

'Lights Out (2013)' is the film that kicked off David F. Sandberg's Hollywood career, as it gained enough acclaim to warrant studio interest in a feature film adaptation. Sandberg's transition from making short horror films on YouTube to making increasingly high-profile features in the USA is inspiring. From what I've seen in interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and his own YouTube videos (which he still uploads semi-regularly despite his fame), he really seems like a genuine, down-to-earth and downright decent guy who deserves the success that he worked hard to achieve (please don't turn out to be a creep, David, I beg of you). This short horror is efficient and effective, making use of simple visual effects and confident pacing to deliver its scares. It has a strong sense of atmosphere and escalates in a somewhat expected yet satisfying way. It really does have a killer concept, too; it's easy to see why this gained the attention it did. Overall, this is a simple yet solid ultra-low-budget experience that makes the most of its concept and is enjoyable throughout. 8/10.

An excellent short horror film

[d-snake1 · 9/10 · 13 October 2018]

Lights Out (2013) is a very short horror film which immediately plays off of humanity's fear of the dark.

In three short minutes, director David Sandberg created a fantastic horror short. He took a singular premise, fear of the dark, and created a grueling three minutes of tension without a single line of dialogue.

There isn't much to say about a film that only lasts three minutes other than my heart was pumping for almost all of it.

The beauty of this film is its duration. We have no time to find anything out, but that's okay. The movie is about being afraid of what runs around with the lights off. We don't have to know the history of the creature, nor do we need to know a thing about the victim.

This is one of those movies that could give your child nightmares for weeks before you even knew they were watching it.

One of the best David F. Sandberg films.

[Short-films-over-everything · 6/10 · 8 May 2024]

I enjoy this one. I have seen this a few times now and it holds up well. The film is very suspenseful and creepy. It's about a woman who is alone in her house and one night she is in her hallway and she turns off the light and she sees a dark figure standing in her hallway. She thinks it's just a trick of the dark or her coat rack at the end of the hall, so she turns the lights on and off repeatedly, and the dark figure appears every time the lights go off and it disappears whenever the lights go on. This scene was very well directed and creepy and I like the concept of the dark figure appearing and disappearing. It was well shot and it was good writing. The film has a dark atmospheric tone and it's a well-made film. The acting from the woman was good and the creep factor was there during the full 2 minutes and 40 seconds of the film. The scene where the woman gets in her bed and hears a running noise in her hallway was pretty creepy too. The last scene was also scary and well done.

a nice play with visuals and sounds

[AvionPrince16 · 8/10 · 22 December 2021]

I enjoyed lights out even if the short movie was very short. We can feel an uneasy situation and creepy too with the sounds and the visuals. It play a lot of with the sound design that we hear only. That make the whole thing pretty scary and of course the monster was pretty nice made.

Lights Out will increase your electricity bill substantially.

[TheMovieDiorama · 6/10 · 16 October 2018]

David Sandberg's short, that inspired the feature film of the same title, is effective because of one element. It turns a common fear into a nightmarish experience. Being frightened of darkness is a phobia that keeps people awake at night. For Sandberg to utilise this psychological detriment and craft a decent three minute film is quite impressive. Naturally the acting is mediocre and the directing style lacks imagination. However, it's the demonic entity residing in the shadows that truly increases your heart rate. The flickering of the light switch, making the demon disappear and reappear instantaneously, exhumed innovation. You just know it's going to move closer with each flick of the switch, as your breathing quickens whilst you wait for the inevitable. Obviously the best line of defence is hiding under the duvet (really...) and its at that precise moment where the excellent sound editing kicks in. The absurdly creaky floorboards as you hear the demon walk, suddenly turning into a light run towards the bedroom. The most effective scares are those that the viewer cannot see, leaving it to their imagination to induce fear. The final shot somewhat loses the tension, but the outstanding use of lighting and conceptualised fear makes this a memorable short. Thank God we got a full length feature film!