‘Lights out’ is a short film that was created by David F. Sandberg and his wife Lotta losten. The couple made and distributed their film via YouTube to enter a local short film competition. Despite the couple not winning, the short film quickly went viral (the video itself currently stands with over 3 million views) Sandberg quickly was being contacted by Hollywood agents and eventually signed with Lawrence Grey who agreed to have a partnership with 21st century Horror visionary James Wan, the brilliant mind behind the Saw anthology, The conjuring and insidious. The film was finished in August of 2015 and is currently out in Cinemas this year (2016) it has earned over $141 million worldwide, so far. Although Sandberg didn’t think that putting his short film on YouTube would gain such a positive response, he did take fully advantage of the opportunity to broadcast his film to potentially billion of viewers, worldwide, for free.

The short film only has one main actor (Lotta Losten, who also co-directed) and two main scenes that take place in two different places in the same house. One scene in a hallway and another scene in the woman’s bedroom. The film starts with a woman coming out of her bathroom, dressed in her pajamas. As she walks through the hallway, she turns back to turn the hallway lights off when she sees a mysterious figure standing at the end of the hallway. Shocked, she turns the lights back on, but the figure is nowhere to be seen. So she turns the lights off again, but the creature reappears in the same place. The protagonist turns the lights on and off again 4 times with the creature reappearing at the end of the hallway each time. However, the fifth time the woman turns the light off the creature is standing Inches from her face. In a panic, the woman duct tapes the light switch on and leaps into her bedroom, locking the door behind her. I think this scene is effective as it perfectly builds tension. At the start the woman literally walks past the creature without realizing it. The flicking of the lights becomes familiar to audience, which is the perfect time to unleash a jump scare.

We see the woman run into her bedroom and dive into her bed, foolishly forgetting to lock her bedroom door. The camera cuts to between a shot of the woman cowering in her bed and a POV shot from the woman’s perspective of the door. The audience and protagonist hear the noise of footsteps and we hear the light switch being turned off. At this point the protagonist leaps under her covers in terror, the camera cuts to a close up of the woman’s horrified face as she hears scuttling and shuffling outside. She has a moment of bravery to peek over the top of her duvet only to see her bedroom door wide open. She retrieves the cable for her bedside lamp and pulls it into the bed with her. Moments later, the woman peers over the duvet again only to see her door closed again and the sun has risen behind her curtains. She and the audience breathe a sigh or relief. Her night of terror is over! She suddenly hears a bump for her side and the camera sharply cuts to a shot of a strange woman with pupil-less eyes bent over her bedside table, light switch in hand.

The bedroom scene is an excellent use of space. The bedroom is small, creating tension. But when the woman hides in her covers. The space becomes even smaller, coupled with the sound of omniscient footsteps it creates an unbelievable amount of tension.

In summary ‘Lights Out’ is a brilliant example of how a simple space, cast and location can create an effective, intriguing and original horror short film.