A former gymnast and stunt performer, Vela-Bailey turns in an impressive and memorably chilling performance as Diana. As an eminently relatable audience surrogate, Bateman ( Annabelle) sympathetically channels Martin’s terror and confusion. Bello, in a rather underwritten part that relies excessively on some overly convenient narrative exposition, still effectively conveys Sophie’s confounding mental disabilities, which ultimately can’t compromise her fierce maternal instincts. Palmer ( The Choice) capably seizes the role of Rebecca with both grim determination and growing compassion that develops with increasing understanding of Sophie’s dire predicament. Like the Paranormal Activity franchise, Lights Out firmly establishes the principal that spirits don’t haunt houses, they haunt people. Heisserer’s elaboration of a malevolent being that lurks in darkness because it can’t survive in the light develops expressive proportions with Sandberg’s visual interpretation of Diana as a blackly charred, spidery figure with piercing claws, viciously intent on protecting her relationship with Sophie. Soon however, Child Protective Services orders Rebecca to bring him back to Sophie’s, forcing her to realize that safeguarding her family will mean confronting Diana, along with all of her deepest fears. Rebecca quickly recognizes the frightening threat that Diana poses, so she relocates Martin to her downtown apartment, determined to shield him from Diana’s evil predation. Martin tells Rebecca that their mother has been secretly conversing with someone named Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey), who seems inseparably attached to Sophie, but only emerges in the dark. So she moved miles away to downtown Los Angeles, never returning home until her 10-year-old stepbrother Martin (Gabriel Bateman) begins suffering similar symptoms after his father Paul (Billy Burke) mysteriously dies. With a history of mental illness, Sophie’s manic-depressive episodes were disturbing and unpredictable, but not nearly as awful as her frequent hallucinations, which substantially contributed to Rebecca’s own chronic insomnia. Eric Heisserer’s screenplay preserves Sandberg’s central premise and protagonist, now identified as Rebecca (Teresa Palmer), a young woman who had good reason to move out on her unstable mother Sophie (Maria Bello) not long after her father abandoned both of them. After a series of short horror films with titles like Not So Fast, Attic Panic and Closet Space, Sandberg caught the attention of Wan and producer Lawrence Grey with Lights Out, which went viral online and resulted in an invitation to direct a feature-length version.
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