I am always ready for fresh blood in the horror genre, especially in a day and age when what is presented in the straight to home video or instant streaming realms are usually better and more creative genre films then the big budget films presented in the cinemas. James Wan being the creator of Saw has for a long time wanted to change that and with the success of his Insidious films and the monster success of the Conjuring films has created a production studio called Atomic Monster that wishes to bring back studio horror in the vein of Poltergeist, Amityville Horror and other such classics that we can't seem to get today. Around the same time Bloody Cuts which is a UK based horror short company put a competition out on the internet entitled, Who's There, in which filmmakers around the world could enter their short horror film for a bevy of prizes. Swedish filmmaker David F. Sanberg and his wife Lotta Losten made the short film "Lights Out" for the competition as they had been making short films for a while. 
The short, with a simple premise of a monstrous creature appearing in the dark and disappearing in the light, delved into some of our most basic and childlike fears and won the competition with ease. Wan saw the short and met with Sandberg and his wife and soon a deal was struck for Lights Out to become the first Atomic Monster production. This is the fairytale story for some of my favorite directors and features ever made, were it not for Stephen King championing Evil Dead we may not have ever gotten the Evil Dead franchise for instance. I was super excited as the concept seemed simple yet so full of potential like any good horror film should and the way Wan talked about the things he wants to do with Atomic Monster just seemed like a horror renaissance was about to occur. My only trepidation was the screenwriter hired onto the project, Eric Heisserer. He had previously taken two of the most celebrated films in the horror genre and given us the worst remakes of them ever attempted, the prequel/remake of John Carpenter's The Thing and the remake of Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street. Needless to say I was a little worried but up until this point he had never had full creative control over an original concept so I went in with hope that given original material he could shine. The concept is fleshed out amazingly, but some of the character relationships are not as well fleshed out. 
A young boy named Martin is having a difficult time dealing with the death of his father along with the mental instability his mother has shown before the death which has worsened after the death. He can't sleep as he constantly hears his mother talking to someone in the darkness of the house yet no one is there and he is plagued by something moving around the house at night banging on doors and scratching the floors as this creature appears before him every time the lights go out. His sister Rebecca is brought into his school to take him home when his health is in question due to his lack of sleep. Rebecca has not spoken to her mother in a long time as she also has been through the same horrors as Martin is going through when she was his age, but she blames the mother's own clinical depression and not a supernatural creature. She confronts her mother and takes Martin to her house against his mother's will so he can finally rest and hope that their mother can sort out her problems. That night however, the same strange phenomenon takes place in Rebecca's apartment. In the darkness she sees a figure scratching on her floor. It looks grotesque and horrifying with its glowing eyes in the darkness. The creature attacks her but disappears in the street light outside her apartment. Rebecca remembers the creature as it haunted her as a child and now it threatens her family in the dark once again. She must discover who the creature is and why it is tethered to her mother as the family prepares to defend themselves with any and every possible light source they can find. 
The greatest thing about this movie is it starts and never really stops for anything, because the monster is so ingrained in the family history as we discover, there is no real moment of disbelief. Once someone sees something strange or experiences the horrors of the creature they immediately listen and don't act like idiots in disbelief. The core concept was that the Mother whom had clinical depression her whole life had an imaginary friend who was deadly to everyone. As an adult this friend has harmed all relationships she's had and controls her in a sense. That concept meshed with the rules of how this imaginary friend exists in our world gives us a great combination of primal fear and real world fear. Clinical depression seemed like a big allegory in the film as the true horror. We learn about the relationship between the mother and the creature named Diana. Had the mother never been clinically depressed the creature would not have been tethered to the mother like a representation of her disease and like most diseases it can spread and hurt your family. The darkness plays a huge part in Diana's background as to why she can move so easily in it and why the light harms her. It's pretty crazy and had a sort of Stephen King vibe to it. What birthed her is explained but it is not a fully formed science which leaves room for the interpretation of evil, that something or someone could be so wicked and vile that essence can corrupt and live on to infect others lives. The darkness is the basest of our fears, I myself always felt protected in the light to the chagrin of my parents who would hate me leaving on every light in the house for fear of the dark. What we can't see or understand logically is what scares us the most. It was really cool to see a very adult themed horror paired with a child's horror to create this new icon in the genre. 
Diana in my mind is the next horror icon. She is covered in shadow throughout the whole film, with piercing eyes that glow in the dark much like many nocturnal creatures that have never seen the sunlight. Her movements crackle the bones in her body along with her diseased skin. The scratch of her nails was the soundtrack of horror to the film. She attacks with brute strength and rage. When we finally see bits of her in the light it is a pretty ugly sight to behold, but for the few times you fully see her you can't stop thinking about that face. We haven't really had a great Slasher supernatural or otherwise in a while. The last ones we got were probably Sam from Trick r Treat and Victor Crowley from Hatchet, both of which started about ten years ago. You can say the Collector but he doesn't even come close to Diana. She is on the level of iconic as the first time I saw Freddy Krueger. There was so much to her story and so much still to be told I think that her horror could easily continue in sequels and her character could evolve much in the same way Freddy did but obviously less campy. 
Now with the core concept of the film and the main antagonist being as enjoyable as they are the characters within are pretty solid except for one honestly. Martin is a great character who's nicely fleshed out as a concerned loving son and brother, he's pretty smart but doesn't always make the smartest survival choices but he's also a kid. He goes back to his mom and back into the house that haunts him but he does it selflessly for the love of his mother and the desire to save her. I've loved Teresa Palmer ever since I saw Take Me Home Tonight. I thought she was funny and could kick some ass too. Here she is a little bit on the over dramatic side as she has been plagued her whole life by the side effects of her mother's depression as well as her father leaving her. She's had to survive on her own and had a hell of a time trusting people and it's easily hindered her relationships. Her boyfriend Bret whom has been with her for almost a decade she has a hard time trusting and fully letting him in until the problems with her family arise and he helps her. Here's that one character. Bret is just kind of there, he drives the car, says things she doesn't want to hear and buys groceries. He doesn't really have much to do other then show that Rebecca has trust issues. He does bring the cops in for one of my favorite kill scenes in the movie, but other than that he's just there. This is where I wondered if Heisserer maybe wasn't good at writing relationships because at this point in his writing career I haven't seen one that really had any weight to it. This also could have been a James Wan or David Sanberg thing as they both take credit in the development of the story, but it's just a trend I've seen in his writings. The only other thing I had a problem with and this is the somewhat Metal Head in me complaining was that Rebecca's apartment had some pretty generic Metal Band posters in her room. Avenged Sevenfold and Mastadon. Mastadon is pretty cool and then all of a sudden hidden behind a desk is a Slayer poster. It just seemed a hodge podge of filmmakers thinking what's hip in the metal scene? Slayer for the win though. 
Collectively even if the characters weren't amazing, this trio has easily given us one of the most interesting horror villains and concepts spawning from a short simple video. Sanberg's directing and use of lighting the scenes is really what champions the film and adds tension to every moment. His lack of jump scare loud noises in lieu of imagery and camera work really sells the terror and makes this film an experience instead of another bland generic studio horror. I can't wait to see this movie carry Atomic Monster into newer and original content and much like New Line who also produced this movie I hope Atomic can become the house that Diana built with a very inventive franchise. This has gotten me so pumped for Sandberg's Annabelle 2 and the rest of his career in general. Four and a half flickering lights out of five!
