![]() It appears that Sophie had a stay at a psychiatric hospital when she was young and it’s where she met Diana, a violent child with a rare skin condition (sensitive to light). In her mother’s home, Rebecca discovers that her stepfather (Billy Burke) was investigating his wife’s past before he was killed mysteriously. She decides to get involved to help her little brother. Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) is the older sister that had left home a long time ago precisely because of her mother’s illness. ![]() The problem is, this imaginary friend of hers, is not so imaginary when the lights are off and not a pleasure to see either: It’s a hairy, skinny, naked silhouette with extremely long fingers nails her name is Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey). Sophie seems to talk to someone or something hidden in a dark wardrobe. A boy called Martin (Gabriel Bateman) calls out for help after seeing his mum Sophie (Maria Bello) falling into deep depression and schizophrenia. Three minutes in, the scene with his wife from the short film is introduced. And the pressure was on to not disappoint. Needless to say, all the fans of the short film went to watch the feature. He avoided the pitfalls of the super-production machine and instead, created an intimate supernatural story. Luckily, Sandberg managed to keep his sanity and his original vision in line. The pressure on Sandberg was enormous making a film at home with your wife is far more comfortable than the Hollywood way of filming. In 2016, it was released under the same title: LIGHTS OUT. In 2015, Sandberg and his wife moved to L.A. The feature film had to be made however at low cost with only a five million dollar budget. Meanwhile, LIGHTS OUT (the short film) went viral online (reaching over 1 million views), was selected in film competitions and won best short film in 2014 at FRIGHT METER AWARDS. The couple loved ‘DIY filmmaking’ so much so they decided to make more short films such as: SEE YOU SOON (2014), NOT SO FAST (2014), ATTIC PANIC (2015) and CLOSET SPACE (2016). ![]() At the time, Sandberg and his wife had no idea that it would take them as far as it did. The short film LIGHTS OUT (2:47 minutes) was released on VIMEO and YouTube in 2013. She puts the lights back on and sees nothing, but each time she switches the lights off the creature appears closer and closer… The concept of his story is very simple: Lotta Lotsen (the film director’s wife) switches off the lights and sees the silhouette of a terrifying naked woman. But you can’t build a whole movie from top-to-bottom out of that alone.What do you do if you have a strong idea for a short film but no funding to make it? You make it yourself at home, in your flat, with your wife. It’s just that in Lights Out, he had a bang-on jump-scare and an inspired visual idea. So we know the man can direct the shit out of a good horror premise. When he was given meatier material to work with in Annabelle: Creation, he fucking knocked it out of the park. ![]() Doing it in reverse is hard, and this film shows us why.Īnd of course, Sandberg is a very talented horror director. Usually you come up with the story idea first, and then build the imagery around that. But the rest of the film’s parts are all working around that visual idea which was the genesis for the entire enterprise, and that’s a tough ask because it’s got the process pretty much backward. Sure, when the lights start flickering and then hit you with a jump-scare of a creepy-ass dreadlocked ghostie, it’s pretty satisfying. But it has to work to pigeon-hole that image into a functional plot and it doesn’t completely work. This is an OK horror movie, that relies heavily on a single (really scary!) visual image and trick. And it’s no surprise that when Sandberg tried to extend the really striking visual idea he had into a movie with a cast of characters and a back-story and a plot, the spooky shadow creature on its own wasn’t quite enough to carry all that weight. It’s not to say that a really clever image from a short film cannot possibly become a good feature-length film. The clip became so popular that, naturally a studio came bumbling over and commissioned it into a feature length film because clearly a 3-minute Youtube clip that leans entirely on one creepy visual image can be seamlessly lengthened into a satisfying feature.Įxcept, as the movie 9 showed us pretty unequivocally, this is not true. It’s a pretty brilliant little exercise in using silhouettes and editing to achieve maximum and visceral effect. Sandberg wrote, directed, scored, shot and gave birth to a 3-minute horror short called Lights Out.
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