Inspired by a terrifying true life event experienced by the director and his own friends, Don’t Turn Out the Lights follows a group of high school friends who reunite for a birthday celebration. After gathering together, they decide to embark on a twenty four hour road trip to a music festival. However, soon after setting off in a massive, borrowed RV, they run into trouble which eventually spirals into a desperate fight for survival.
Available through VOD as of September 6, 2024 through Quiver Distribution, and directed by Andy Fickman (She’s the Man 2006, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 2015), Don’t Turn Out the Lights makes use of a number of different Horror tropes that will be very familiar to audiences. There are the typical group of different friends – the nice girl, the spoilt princess, the stoner, the jock etc. There is the in the middle of nowhere location in the woods where no one can hear you scream and there is even an encounter with some locals who not only refuse to help the group when they get lost but also turn out to be racist, violent thugs.
In fact, Don’t Turn Out the Lights is so littered with Horror cliches that the audience has to assume that this is intentional from Fickman in an attempt to subvert the genre. Whether or not the film works as a subversion though is questionable. Most of the time, Don’t Turn Out the Lights feels like your bog standard high school Horror movie. Everything about the film, from the characters to the plot, feels like something that the audience will have seen previously.
Another issue with Don’t Turn Out the Lights is its pacing. The film sets up its initial premise quite quickly as the friends meet and reunite and are soon off on their road trip. It is not long before they run into trouble and a fight with some dodgy locals ensue. However, once the group becomes stranded on a deserted road deep in the woods, the film grinds to a bit of a halt. At almost two hours, Don’t Turn Out the Lights has a reasonably long running time – especially when compared with similar films in the genre and there is a large chunk of the running time that is taken up with the group interacting in the RV. Unfortunately these interactions predominantly seem to consist of the group arguing and talking over each other.
As some spooky supernatural things start to happen, Don’t Turn Out the Lights picks up a bit again and there are some fun moments of horror. These moments also allow the cast to shine and for the interactions between them to become more interesting. However, again this aspect isn’t without its issues as the film becomes slightly muddled when it comes to any kind of explanation or clear reason for what is actually happening. It is never completely clear whether the events in Don’t Turn Out the Lights are due to deadly creatures, murderous locals or the results of too many recreational drugs. Perhaps that is the point, but this might be one to miss for audiences who prefer their plot points more straightforward.
Overall, Don’t Turn Out the Lights is a watchable enough horror movie, but unfortunately there is nothing about it that elevates it to an unmissable horror. This might be one for diehard fans of either Fickman or high school Horrors only, and that is why Cryptic Rock gives it 2 out of 5 stars.
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