“Lights Out” began life as a three-minute short film by David F.
Sandberg that was short on such elements as narrative complexity, character
development and memorable dialogue (I don’t recall a single word being spoken) and long on coming up with more big jolts than would seem possible in such a short running time. It got no small degree of attention and
Sandberg was given a chance to expand the short into a full-length feature,
putting it in such esteemed genre company as the original “When a Stranger
Calls” and “The Babadook.” In the cases of those works, the filmmakers found