When you have a film involving a group of friends in peril there are a few other thins that need to be considered. Firstly, what do we think of this group? Are they likeable, entertaining, interesting…in fact, do they have any redeeming characteristics? If they aren’t immediately likeable, do they have the scope and range to develop into a group that you can get behind? Another consideration has to be around the cause of the peril in which they find themselves. Is it due to something that they have brought upon themselves? It could be deliberately or by accident.
It could be something they knew about before, something totally possible but unlikely, or something completely unprecedented. Regardless of how events develop, how well prepared are they? I mean, you definitely take an umbrella when it is raining but should you take one if it is just cloudy? Finally do they know what is happening to them or why it is happening? Perhaps more importantly, does the majority of the audience know what is happening? The nature of threat and escape could be established by straight forward exposition or it could be deduced from clues dropped along the way.
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The Wheels On The Bus Go Round And Round
Sadly, Don’t Turn Out The Lights, for me, fails on all those counts. The characters were unpleasant and hard to feel any sympathy for. It felt like someone had just phoned central casting…”What have you got in the way of a typical high school group? Hmmm…they all look like they’re in their mid thirties. They are? We’d better make them college kids then.” Then in strolls the jock, the stoner, the rich kid, the geek, the wannabe influencer, and all the rest. They are invariably loud, obnoxious, self centred, and judgmental. Of course that could just be me…it’s fifty years since I first went to college.
Next up was the cause of their predicament. But first, a little background. The group of friends meet up in a park. Carrie (Bella DeLong) has an eerie interaction with a young girl (Finley Rose Slater) which makes you think is the start of their problems. Just after that is the first jump scare when Gabby (Ana Zambrana) rugby tackles Carrie before they enjoy a short but vigorous dance together. Oh, Gabby is the jock, and has torn her anterior cruciate ligament. I know people who have done that and she is much more spritely than they ever were! But the park set up is a ruse because, after the group have met up, they are to put everything onto a beaten up camper van.
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Round And Round, Round And Round
The friends are heading off for a weekend of debauchery at a music festival called Blue Light. Now Blue Light is, apparently, ten hours drive away, hence the camper van. I’m not sure how far away that is because, well, USA. Over here if you drive for ten hours you need your passport and a ferry ticket. After a short while they need fuel and bump into a couple of unpleasant chaps (George Schroeder and David Sitler). Fortunately, one of the group is former marine (John Bucy) and beats them off with Gabby’s Magic Wand…and I don’t mean a Harry Potter type of wand. There is a further bit of unpleasantness which leads to the gang possibly taking a wrong turn.
I say possibly because it isn’t made clear. Which is much like the rest of Don’t Turn Out The Lights. The rest of the film has them getting into some sort of trouble which really spoils their weekend. I don’t know why, how, or what the nature of the trouble is as it isn’t made clear. It seems to be purely a case of wrong place, wrong time which, for me, is quite unsatisfying. Which is a shame as it was well shot and performed. Writer/director Andy Fickman has a fair amount of experience and it shows…apart from the actual story. Don’t Turn Out The Lights has its UK digital release on 17th March courtesy of 101 Films.
Independent Film Grade: C-
Former teacher, lecturer, homelessness administrator, pharmacy dispenser now happily retired, happily married, and a very happy granddad. I live next to the Mersey but on the side Daniel Craig and Taron Egerton come from rather than the side the Beatles came from!