LIGHTS OUT (2016)

David F. Sandberg’s film from a screenplay by Eric Heisserer is a supernatural horror film that is genuinely frightening a good part of the time and based on a 2½ minute film he made a few years ago. However in expanding the short film into feature length and giving the characters all backstories including the ghost, it loses some steam in the overall execution. A very effective cast that includes Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman (an excellent child actor), Maria Bello and Billy Burke in essentially a short sequence at the beginning, it is Alexander DiPersia who steals the show. I am so glad that the filmmakers did not take the easy way out and eliminate this character (as is so often done in this type of film), for if anyone deserved to survive this ghost’s satanic revenge it was his character, who ends up saving the day. He is so likeable that I envision this actor to have quite a career in front of him and there is always the possibility of an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for this role.