Is the monster real, imagined, or somewhere between those two states of existence? That’s the fascinating question at the center of Don’t Turn Out the Lights, a horror-thriller that was clearly made on the cheap and quick, but which nearly makes up for that by focusing on the uncertainty presented by the question. It’s hard to doubt that some of the film’s effectiveness was the unintentional result of a very low budget, and that’s apparent during the one or two times we get a glimpse of the “monster” as some unwitting young adults find themselves in its path. All we see are two blinking, yellowish eyes in the background of a shot.
It’s an interesting way for writer/director Andy Fickman to deal with the obvious financial constraints of his film, which is otherwise so simple and straightforward that those qualities do eventually catch up with it. The characters aren’t terribly well-defined or all that sympathetic, and not one of the performances among the principal cast is convincing, which is impressive in its own right and, well, in a different way. Its prospects aren’t exactly promising at the start, when we meet the alternatively self-serving, egotistical and raucous brats that are the players here. If the audience is unwilling to see the humanity within any of the protagonists of a horror film about surviving an unseen monster, that’s more than a little problematic.
It does, though, make the surrounding film all the more almost-impressive that the horror angle nearly makes the whole thing work, and that’s largely because Fickman (an unlikely director to spark any such statements) quickly establishes an atmosphere, a sense of danger and a feeling of disorientation with all of this. For posterity, the central character of the screenplay is Carrie (Bella DeLong), who has arrived at a local park to meet up with her best friends Gaby (Ana Zambrana) and Michael (Jarrett Austin Brown). It’s time to celebrate the birthday of their friend Olivia (Crystal Lake Evans), who also happens to be Michael’s girlfriend. Along for the ride are substances-imbibing partier Chris (Daryl Tofa), stoic former Marine Jason (John Bucy) and Sarah (Amber Janea), whose past behavior revealed a toxic person underneath the beauty.
The number seven isn’t the symbolic representation of perfection for nothing, of course. Fickman has populated his movie with just the right number of characters to justify a scenario in which they find themselves terrorized inside the recreational vehicle rented to drive them to a nearby music festival. The filmmaker does provide some useless red herrings, such as a creepy little girl (Finley Rose Slater) in the opening scene, and misdirection, such as some intimidating locals who are either unhelpful or outright hostile. These things only distract from what’s actually appealing here.
Once the threat arises, with its door-banging and reality-tampering and fog-layering ways, it’s hard not to be entertained by how Fickman manages to keep the simple scenario afloat. The gnarliest bit here, for instance, involves a harried debate that forms out of whether or not one of the friends is actually banging on the door and begging to come in. The question is less about whether she’s really outside the door and more about what the people inside the RV are seeing with their own eyes. One sort of must be vague when talking about this stuff, of course, because, again, it’s all about that atmosphere of paranoia.
Other characters disappear without a trace, are visibly pulled back by nothing in particular or find themselves on the receiving end of a full-body pulverization. The final scene of Don’t Turn Out the Lights, meanwhile, suggests that this whole process is a hopeless loop. It’s a surprisingly bleak note on which to end things, instead of seeming like an empty sequel stinger, and the attitude nearly lifts the film above the more important concerns. We spend the movie somewhere between admiration for nailing a simple concept and frustration about the one-note ensemble of unlikable characters.
Photo courtesy of Quiver Distribution
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