Five friends embark on a road trip in an RV, eager to attend a music festival. Their journey takes a sinister turn when they stop for gas and encounter two ominous thugs. Tension escalates as the group realizes they’re being followed.
The real nightmare begins when the RV breaks down, leaving them stranded. From that point on, they are hunted and killed one by one. The only thing keeping them safe? Light. But the darkness is ever-looming, and something unspeakable lurks within it, waiting to claim its next victim.
As the film unfolds into a gruesome spectacle, the two remaining survivors—Bella Delong and Amber Janea—fight desperately for their lives in a blood-soaked battle against an unseen terror.
Andy Fickman’s Don’t Turn Out the Lights is certainly a strange yet thought-provoking movie that starts out like all the rest but slowly evolves into something very intriguing.
An annoying cast of copy-and-paste stereotypes head towards a festival in an RV and after about 30 minutes of hearing them drone on in their self-absorbed ways you almost root for their demise before this part of the film has even begun!
Leaning on classic horror tropes the film delivers predictable moments in part but stays away from the blood and gore in favour of a more unsettling vibe once this mysterious and supernatural story starts weaving itself around the cast the second the RV breaks down, it is here in this moment where things step up a notch and Don’t Turn Out the Lights steps away from the usual copy and paste rubbish and becomes a very embellished Twilight Zone esque endeavour.
Simple yet effective in delivering those heart-stopping moments of tension the film toys with the audience but has such a wonderful cinematic feel to it despite its independent budget.
Aside from some musical scores that didn’t fit with certain scenes whatsoever, there wasn’t much to gripe about when watching this film as it feels much more polished and higher budget than I was expecting.
Sadly the film’s runtime does create some moments that drag on but like I say, the second the RV breaks down things heat up and the final 30 minutes do allow some brief explanations as to what is happening to them but it’s never fully revealed.
It’s a film where you can fill in the blanks yourself, you’ll be thinking of explanations to certain scenes and it’s a very open-minded delivery and despite a twist ending you’ll still not be entirely sure what’s happened to an extent.
A film that doesn’t need to lean into the usual blood and guts-soaked spectacle just to garner an audience this film will surprise a lot of horror aficionados and I can see this one having its very own little cult following.
Tighten up the pacing at the start before things get juicy in the final act and this film would be right up there for me but sadly tolerating a stellar cast acting intolerable for 30 minutes was far too much for my patience to handle.
“Kill them all, hurry up already!” I shouted as that’s just how annoying these guys were in the beginning.
Don’t Turn Out The Lights is a cool little horror movie but definitely a once and done for me but it wasn’t a bad little watch at all!
Our Rating
Summary
A nostalgic throwback to 90s straight-to-video horror as this modern Twilight Zone-esque film leaves us all guessing by the time the credits roll. It’s shot well but with a very annoying typecast cast ensemble and some questionable music accompaniments, it’s a once-and-done for me. Clever in parts but some fine-tuning is needed in this otherwise forgettable feature.
