OPINION
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MOVIE REVIEWS
“Lights Out” offers expansion on preliminary short film
“Nerve” delivers appealing visuals
THE BATTALION | THEBATT.COM
Mariah Colon News Writer
D
avid F. Sandberg, a self-taught filmmaker from Sweden, released a short film featuring his wife Lotta Losten in 2013 titled “Lights Out.” It was not until I searched for the details of the new 2016 movie that I came across the original short. This roughly two-and-a-half-minute video managed to capture the same suspense and thrill as Sandberg’s hour and a half adaptation that came out in theaters July 22 2016, which speaks volumes on the wasted potential of the latter film. With an estimated budget of only 4,900,000 dollars, “Lights Out” managed to pull in 21,688,103 dollars opening weekend from the U.S. Fans of the short heavily anticipated the growth in Sandberg’s creative direction with the film, and reviews have been a mix of either fan fulfillment or disappointment. “Lights Out” focuses on a paranormal figure by the name of Diana that has followed Sophie (Maria Bello) and her children, Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) and Martin (Gabriel Bateman) throughout their lives. When Martin witnesses Sophie and Diana interact, Rebecca reconnects with her mother and brother to work on uncovering the mystery of the figure’s past and why it has latched itself to their family. After a look into the family’s history the children set forth to help rid their mother of Diana once and for all. The concept Sandberg works with- having the parent have an imaginary friend rather than the children- is a fantastic idea. The idea of a mentally unstable mother who totes around- or is rather toted around by- a mysterious supernatural “friend” was an interesting perception. However, the concept would have been executed much better if the number of plot holes in both Sophie and Di-
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Sydney Farris— THE BATTALION
Sydney Farris — THE BATTALION
ana’s history were reduced and if the backstory were expanded on. To add to this, the opening scene does a good job of establishing the thrilling aspects of the film, but the remaining scenes feel forced and expected without much in depth information given on the character transformations of Martin and Sophie after the eventful opening scene. With all of this in mind, the film’s major flaw lies in its inability to push the envelope past its cliché and sequenced horror-film predecessors. The full length feature was an opportunity to expand on the backstory of the characters and the paranormal phenomenon; however the 2016 movie leaves the audience with a fairly predictable plotline and forced character development and interaction. Sandberg uses drawn-out suspense and jump scares to fill the time with just enough content to keep the film interesting, but not enough to make it noteworthy. In other words: This film is okay, but nowhere near as spectacular or in any way different than what audiences have seen in thriller-horror movies before.
Ana Sevilla News Writer
T
een thriller flick “Nerve” hit the silver screen July 29 delivering sleek neon aesthetics, well integrated game graphics and a fast-paced plot carried by Venus “Vee” Delmonico (Emma Roberts) and mysterious bad boy Ian (Dave Franco). Vee is a Staten Island high school senior who is afraid of risk and her mother’s helicopter parenting since the death of her older brother. Sheltered and quiet, Vee is the polar opposite of her best friend Sydney (Emily Meade), an adventurous and sultry cheerleader and player in the game “Nerve.” The dystopian game is simple: watchers pay to watch and suggest dares for players. Players then stream the dare as proof in exchange for money and higher viewership, but there’s a warning that snitches will get stitches. Tired of being heckled by Sydney
about her boring lifestyle, Vee signs up as a player and the game begins with small dares such a kissing a stranger for five seconds, trying on an expensive dress and going to the city with Ian. While the shy-girl-bad-boy trope is more present than ever in the movie, the actual concept of the game speaks volumes about the current state of technology. “Nerve” operates without legal interference because every player and watcher’s device becomes a new server for the game. With apps such as Snapchat, public humiliation is possible and gives others a platform to speak under the assumption of privacy. Similarly, the only way to fail at the game is to fail at accomplishing a dare or to bail. Ultimately, the game translates better to the screen than the acting does. While the ending has multiple loose strings, the movie is more than worth seeing in theaters because of the playful cinematography and screen-wide game graphics which makes the trip to the theater worth it.
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