Palmer is fierce, Rebecca's maternal instincts coming into play as her mother's come into question. Maria Bello ('Prisoners') certainly looks the part of a depressive hanging on by a thread, but she's saddled with her character's ridiculous ties to Diana. As commitment phobic Rebecca's boyfriend, Alexander DiPersia's ('I Am Legend') attempts to secure himself in her life are endearing. The original short's star, Sandberg's wife Lotta Losten, returns as Paul's assistant, the first person who gets a glimpse of Diana in the shadows of the textile warehouse and who tries to warn him. Some risible dialogue doesn't help matters, but the cast is better than the material they've been given to work with. The current horror trope (lifted from the 'Paranormal Activity' series) of a person being quickly dragged out of the frame by an unseen entity is also wearing out its welcome. 'Mama' used a similar concept and marrying mental illness with the supernatural, which can be effective if done well, is a subgenre unto itself. By attempting to give the creature which only exists in the dark a back story, 'Lights Out' twists itself into silly psychobabble knots while setting itself up not only for a sequel, but a prequel! The short relies on scaring up our fear of the dark, but the feature leans on too many films which have come before. But something dreadful's happened in opening up the truly unsettling short film. Sandberg makes his feature debut with Eric Heisserer's ('Final Destination 5') adaptation of Sandberg's short of the same title (you can view it here).

Lights out short film creature