For a little boy named Martin, it should be nice when his single mom suggests watching a movie at home. With popcorn!
It’ll be fun, she says, “for all three of us.” That part is less nice. There are only two people in the house.
“Lights Out” has just enough creepy touches like this to bear the weight of its thin premise. The compact 81-minute running time helps.
In a prologue, we are introduced to the idea of a female monster who exists only in the dark. As long as you can keep the lights on, it can’t manifest itself.
This is bad news for the guy (Billy Burke) we meet in the opening sequence, because the lights at his workplace are unpredictable. Later it gets worse for his son, Martin (Gabriel Bateman), stuck in a house with his mother (Maria Bello). She has a tendency to talk to someone who’s not there.
Martin’s older half-sister, Rebecca (Teresa Palmer, from the recent “Point Break” remake), lives on her own. Her boyfriend (Alexander DiPersia) can’t understand her reluctance to commit to their relationship. But he hasn’t met Mommy yet.
Director David F. Sandberg expanded “Lights Out” from his short film. The explanation for why the mother is acting so weird is boilerplate horror-movie stuff, but that’s why it works pretty well.
The usual weird talismans are brought in: creaky floorboards, spooky childhood drawings, inexplicable carvings in the floor. They’re stale, but you have to have them.
The movie’s fortunate in employing a real actress, Maria Bello, to provide ballast. She doesn’t get to stretch out very much, but Bello is good at suggesting the weight of past horrors.
And every ten minutes or so, the lights go out. The film exhausts most of the possibilities for how light can be generated and extinguished, although I’m surprised they didn’t do more with the Clapper.
The mother-son set-up might recall “The Babadook,” a recent exercise in horror. But that’s a much more inventive movie, and “Lights Out” doesn’t reach that level of intrigue — it doesn’t even try.
Both films keep it simple by stripping down scary situations to their basics. Within those limited parameters, “Lights Out” is a modest success.
“Lights Out” 2 stars
A thin horror-movie premise gets a modestly effective treatment. A female monster haunts a single mom (Maria Bello) and her young son, with the ghoul able to manifest itself only in the dark — ah, but keeping the lights turned on is trickier than you think. With Teresa Palmer.
Rating: PG-13, for violence
Showing: Alderwood Mall, Cinebarre, Everett, Monroe, Marysville, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Woodinville, Cascade Mall
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