Recently, we watched Lights Out for the first time. The trailer didn’t generate much interest for either of us and reviews were mediocre at best so we didn’t have high expectations going in. But hey, we were able to rent it from the library for free, so we figured why not give this film a whirl and see if it was better than anticipated!

Sadly, Lights Out was even more of a disappointment than we were expecting. Despite its promising roots as a short film, the entire movie was a mess. What did surprise us were the similarities between Lights Out and The Babadook, a 2014 Canadian-Australian horror film that had similar themes of a mother suffering from the effects of mental illness and isolation.

A look at Guillermo del Toro's film Pan's Labyrinth and how the motif of nature functions within the film.