LIGHTS OUT (2016) Movie Review

"Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

Lights Out is a suspenseful horror that will keep you on the edge of your seat with a horrifying, mysterious villain. It is originally based on the short, Lights Out , one of a series of horror based shorts starring Lotta Losten.

The film much like the short is a nail biting thriller, but it also provides a unique back story with unrelenting threat named Diana. She was once a girl with a dark obsession and an extreme aversion to light. What she becomes lack an official name other than a perfect example of pure evil. She can only act in darkness. She is darkness itself.

The only way she survives in the world is through a spiritual attachment between Diana and Sophie, a woman prone to deep depression. The deeper into her depression Sophie slips, the more powerful Diana becomes.

Darkness isolates. Diana wants Sophie all to herself, so she terrorizes and kills anyone who would come between them, including her family. Diana succeeds in killing both of Sophie's husbands and drives away her daughter.

Darkness lies . Sophie suffers the depression of losing her husbands, her daughter's abandonment, and a stubborn denial of treatment. What's worse is her denial of the truth. She denies the fate of her husbands, the demise of Diana, and Diana's dark intentions with her.

Darkness is contagious. Diana's darkness not only infects Sophie, but also Sophie's loved ones. Her daughter Rebecca becomes attracted to darkness. Her posters depict disturbing images. She partakes in drugs. She struggles to keep relationships. She avoids her family.

Darkness consumes the soul. Both Sophie and Rebecca are so infected that the only light remaining within them is their love for their surviving family. If not for that love, Diana might have succeeded in consuming Sophie. It drives her to the brink of madness.

Defeating darkness seems impossible. Physical light only deters Diana, but she is always near and ready to pounce. Weapons can't harm her, because she is already dead. Companionship and the police only give her more victims to murder. Abandonment is merely a means to survive. So how is the darkness within Sophie defeated?

The answer lies within Sophie the entire time. love. Sacrificial love. Sophie scrifices herself taking darkness into death with her and saving her children. Much like Sophie, Christ sacrificed himself taking sin into death with Him and saving all of God's children. Through the salvation of Christ no one will have to be plagued by darkness again.