Lights Out

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Lights Out

PG-13

Released Jul 22, 2016

1h 17m

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

75%

Tomatometer

181 Reviews

61%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

When Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) left home, she thought that her childhood fears were behind her. As a young girl growing up, she was never really sure of what was real when the lights went out at night. Now, her little brother Martin (Gabriel Bateman) is experiencing the same unexplained and terrifying events that jeopardized her safety and sanity. Holding a mysterious attachment to their mother (Maria Bello), a supernatural entity has returned with a vengeance to torment the entire family.

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Critics Consensus

Lights Out makes skillful use of sturdy genre tropes -- and some terrific performances -- for an unsettling, fright-filled experience that delivers superior chills without skimping on story.

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Ed Potton

Times (UK)

There are scares from the off in the short, punchy horror Lights Out, adapted by the director David F Sandberg from his short film.

Rated: 3/5

Oct 10, 2016

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Donald Clarke

Irish Times

The thrills are well orchestrated in a flick that knows not to outstay its welcome.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 22, 2016

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Geoffrey Macnab

Independent (UK)

In its own deeply contrived way, the film is just as frightening as you want it to be.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 18, 2016

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Zach Pope

Zach Pope Reviews

Excellent jump scares forgettable characters but Palmer is great!

Aug 7, 2023

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Keith Garlington

Keith & the Movies

It does employ a few all-too-familiar tricks, but they certainly don’t undercut the many things the film deserves credit for.

Rated: 4/5

Aug 23, 2022

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Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

While Sandberg orchestrates a few sequences of heavy tension, Lights Out doesnt quite click or retain a place in our minds after the end credits.

Rated: 2/4

Apr 11, 2022

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Jeepers C

Loved this movie. It delivers in so many ways. The atmosphere, the entity, and the acting are really well done. It was a really good horror movie to watch with a bunch of friends.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/27/25

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Andy W

Had some creepy, scary moments, but storyline and plot development was incoherent and rather silly.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/16/25

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faraz e

stupid movie bad plot bad everything . just a waste of time more of a comedy then horror from how goofy it is.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/21/25

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Waniya S

Has the greenest flag guy ever as a boyfriend, I was blushing more than I was scared

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/22/24

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Bobby J

Absolutely love this film. Had a great story line and was absolutely terrifying. Highly recommend

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/24/24

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Jacob B

I'm sorry, guys but this Conjuring-adjacent film (not part of the franchise but James Wan was a producer and, despite this film explicitly being a work of fiction, still seemed to me like it was clearly gunning for that crowd), while not bad, was an underwhelming horror movie. There are things to like about it. The acting is good, the characters aren't generic horror movie stereotypes, it makes a good first impression and the cinematography's solid but the film felt way too short, I didn't find the villain to be that scary and the ending can be interpreted as stigmatising mental illness, not helped by the fact that this wasn't the original ending. I just thought this film was forgettable is all I'm saying and that it felt like a first attempt at feature-length filmmaking before his improved efforts on Annabelle: Creation. And maybe the concept of "horror movie villains as personifications of mental illness" just doesn't appeal to me. At least that's what I think after doing some self-reflection on it. I didn't hate Lights Out. It just didn't make me afraid of the dark like it wanted to do.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

09/17/24

Full Review

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David F. Sandberg

Director

Teresa Palmer

Rebecca

Gabriel Bateman

Martin

Alexander DiPersia

Bret

Billy Burke

Paul

Maria Bello

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Lights Out: Trailer 2

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Lights Out: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

When Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) left home, she thought that her childhood fears were behind her. As a young girl growing up, she was never really sure of what was real when the lights went out at night. Now, her little brother Martin (Gabriel Bateman) is experiencing the same unexplained and terrifying events that jeopardized her safety and sanity. Holding a mysterious attachment to their mother (Maria Bello), a supernatural entity has returned with a vengeance to torment the entire family.

Director: David F. Sandberg
Producer: James Wan, Lawrence Grey, Eric Heisserer
Screenwriter: Eric Heisserer
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Co: Atomic Monster, Grey Matter
Rating: PG-13 (Disturbing Images|Brief Drug Content|Some Thematic Material|Terror Throughout|Violence)
Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 22, 2016, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 11, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $67.3M
Runtime: 1h 17m

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