Lights Out
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	David F. Sandberg
Screenplay by	Eric Heisserer
Based on	Lights Out by David F. Sandberg
Produced by	James Wan Lawrence Grey Eric Heisserer
Starring	Teresa Palmer Gabriel Bateman Alexander DiPersia Billy Burke Maria Bello
Cinematography	Marc Spicer
Edited by	Kirk Morri Michel Aller
Music by	Benjamin Wallfisch
Production companies	New Line Cinema RatPac-Dune Entertainment Atomic Monster Grey Matter Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	June 8, 2016 (2016-06-08) (Los Angeles Film Festival) July 22, 2016 (2016-07-22) (United States)
Running time	81 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$4.9 million[2]
Box office	$148.9 million[3]

Lights Out is a 2016 American supernatural horror film directed by David F. Sandberg (in his directorial debut) and written by Eric Heisserer, who based the screenplay on Sandberg's 2013 short film of the same name. It follows a woman who must protect her young half-brother against a spirit from her family's past that kills its victims in the dark. The film stars Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia, Billy Burke, and Maria Bello. It also features Sandberg's wife Lotta Losten, who starred in the short film.^[4]

Produced by Heisserer, Lawrence Grey, and James Wan, the film was shot in Los Angeles from June to August 2015. It had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 8, 2016, and was released in the United States and Canada by Warner Bros. Pictures on July 22, 2016. The film grossed $148 million against a budget of $4.9 million and received mixed reviews from critics. A sequel is in development.

1 – Exposition The movie Lights Out tells the story of a family haunted by a mysterious presence. Martin begins to experience strange events in his house at night. At first, the noises and shadows could be perceived as imagination. However, a dark presence seems to be hiding in the house.

2 – Rising Action Rebecca returns home to help her brother and soon discovers that a strange entity named Diana appears only in the dark. The attacks become more dangerous, and the family becomes terrified. Rebecca thinks the spirit might have been connected to her mother’s past.

3 – Climax The climax happens when Diana attacks the family at night. Rebecca realizes the spirit becomes weak when there is light. The darkness must be avoided, and the lights should be turned on to survive.

4 – Falling Action Rebecca and Martin try to protect themselves using light. Diana becomes weaker and the spirit can be controlled when the darkness disappears. In a reflection, Rebecca understands the truth about the spirit.

5 – Denouement In the end, the danger finally ends and the children are safe. The strange events might have seemed impossible at first, but they revealed the truth about the spirit.

Sandberg, along with his wife Lotta Losten, created the initial short film for a film competition. Although the film did not win the competition, the short soon went viral, leading to Sandberg being contacted by several agents, to the point where he had to develop a spreadsheet to keep track of them all.^[5] One of the contacts was Lawrence Grey who wanted to collaborate with James Wan in order to produce a feature-length version. Although Wan enjoyed the short, he was hesitant that it could be turned into a feature until Sandberg produced a treatment for the feature-length version.^[5]

The move to Hollywood was somewhat hectic for the couple, requiring that Losten quit her day job in order to do so. Once in Hollywood the two were unable to get an apartment due to not having a US credit score, forcing them to rent Airbnb on a monthly basis.^[5]

Sandberg originally based the character of Rebecca on a real girl that he knew who was suffering from depression, and who was engaging in self-harm, which is why Rebecca has scars on her arms, but the development of the film made it less about depression and more of a ghost story in which Diana would have been the real person who died and became a ghost. Wan came up with the idea of making Diana the ghost. Rebecca's boyfriend was also given a twist of being a rocker, but is actually committed and responsible, even driving a safe car like a Volvo. Another twist Sandberg liked was making the imaginary friend for the mother rather than the trope of having the friend be for the child.^[6]

In June 2015, Gabriel Bateman and Teresa Palmer were cast in the film as the child and teenager leads. In that same month, Maria Bello was cast in the film as the mother of Bateman and Palmer's characters, alongside Alexander DiPersia as the boyfriend of Palmer's character, Billy Burke as the stepfather of Palmer's character and father of Bateman's character, and Alicia Vela-Bailey as the main antagonist Diana were also starring.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Principal photography for the film began in June 2015 in Los Angeles. Filming was completed on August 5, 2015.^[11] Sandberg had not worked with a film crew or visited a film set before directing Lights Out; he had to ask the first assistant director, "So when do I say action?"^[12]

Special effects of having the ghost appear and disappear were mostly done by using a split-screen technique as also used in the short. Sandberg said "Whenever she's in frame with another character, it's basically just a split screen. So you shoot it with her and without her. You turn the camera on with her, you turn it off and she walks off, and then you turn it on again. It's super simple, actually." Sandberg also made a list of what he called the "light gags", or different ways to create light sources from flashlights to cell phones and gunfire. In the scene when Diana appears in Rebecca's room, James Wan suggested replacing passing car headlights in an early treatment with the flashing neon sign that appears in the final film.^[6]

After hearing concerns from critics that the ending of the film was promoting suicide, Sandberg interviewed with The A.V. Club where he said he was distressed about that idea, and wanted to explain his position. He said that he originally wanted to make a film about depression, as he has also suffered from it, and that one of his friends had died by suicide. Diana was not a ghost back then, but during the development of the film, it became more of a horror film. It still retained some themes about depression and mental illness. He had originally shot a second ending to the film in which Martin becomes depressed and Diana comes back one more time before she is killed. Test audiences concluded that Sophie's sacrifice would have been in vain.^[6]

The film had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 8, 2016.^[13] The film also screened at Comic-Con on July 20, 2016,^[14] and was released on July 22, 2016.^[15]

Lights Out grossed $67.3 million in the United States and Canada and $81.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $148.9 million, against a production budget of $4.9 million.^[3]

In North America, Lights Out was projected to gross $13–15 million from 2,900 theaters in its opening weekend.^[16] It made $1.8 million from its Thursday night screenings and $9.2 million on its first day.^[17] The film exceeded expectations and earned $21.7 million in its opening weekend, finishing at third place behind fellow newcomer Star Trek Beyond and holdover The Secret Life of Pets.^[18][19]

In other territories, the film earned $8.5 million in its opening weekend from 3,737 screens in key markets of Russia and Australia along with 30 smaller Eastern European and Asian markets. The film benefited from being released in the wake of the global success of The Conjuring 2.^[20] It debuted at first place in Russia with $1.7 million.^[20] Its other top openings were recorded in South Korea ($3.9 million), France ($1.5 million), the U.K. ($1.4 million) and Spain ($1.1 million).^[21][22] Its biggest earning markets are South Korea ($7.7 million), Mexico ($5.5 million), the U.K. ($4.5 million) and Spain ($3.9 million).^[23]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 75% based on 183 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Lights Out makes skillful use of sturdy genre tropes—and some terrific performances—for an unsettling, fright-filled experience that delivers superior chills without skimping on story."^[24] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 58 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[25] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.^[26]

Lucy O'Brien of IGN gave the film 7/10, saying: "[w]ith an unnerving monster at its core, great cast and relentless final sequence, Light's [sic] Out is a debut director Sandberg should be proud of. A clunky script occasionally loosens its grip on the nerves, but chances are Diana will still have you sleeping with the lights on for a good while after leaving the theatre."^[27] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film 4 stars out of 4, stating: "[e]ven the most cynical, jaded, seen-it-all-before critic cannot deny certain visceral reactions to a film. Lights Out gave me the chills."^[28] Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "[a] surprisingly maternal horror movie that relies as much on fraying emotional bonds as supernatural suspense to create tension, Lights Out deals with an array of primal fears that threaten to unravel a family's fundamental relationships, along with their sanity."^[29] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote, "[s]packling over any copycat cracks with strong acting and fleet editing, Lights Out delivers minimalist frights in old-school ways."^[30]

A few critics were less taken with the film. James Berardinelli of Reelviews gave 2 stars out of 4, saying: "[u]nfortunately, the film stumbles, offering too few legitimate scares and displaying an overreliance on traditional horror movie clichés." Berardinelli detested the film's camerawork, described characters as being "thinly drawn", and the screenplay as "spending inordinate amount of time providing a backstory..."^[31] Rex Reed of Observer gave 1 star out of 4, saying: "the film's screenplay focuses almost entirely on the number of resourceful and ingenious ways the characters dream up to keep the lights on, stave off the next attack and stay alive—lights from candles, flashlights, cellphones, the car in the driveway—before the batteries die; The fun wears out fast and so does the "gotcha" factor."^[32]

In July 2016, a week after the film's release, it was announced that New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures had greenlit a sequel. Heisserer and Sandberg will return to write and direct the film, respectively, while Wan and Lawrence Grey will return to produce under their Atomic Monster and Grey Matter Productions banners.^[33][34]

As of 2026, there has been no update on the sequel's development.^[35]

• List of ghost films

• Official website
• Lights Out at IMDb 
• Lights Out at Box Office Mojo
• Lights Out at Rotten Tomatoes
• Lights Out at Metacritic