Lights Out - Who's There Film Challenge (2013)

The image is purposefully very dark in places so watch in fullscreen for best effect. And crank the sound up!

[unoiamacutie]

Covers are the ultimate weapon against monsters in the dark.

[clqude]

As a horror addict, this is probably one of the best things I’ve seen, the build-up is so smooth, No words at all and it’s only 3 minutes, yet it’s better than a majority of horror movies released today.

[TEcho-Music]

three years later. this shit got a movie. well done

[davidtorazzi]

Imagine this, you are a kid, browsing through internet, and you stumble on this, you don't know what it is about but decide to watch it anyway.
That was me, years ago.

[NoirSimp]

I thought this is a commercial about saving electricity.

[melchaios]

LOL, I loved how after she sees a FUCKING ghost creature in her house, she just puts duct tape in the light switch and casually goes to bed like saying "Well, that should take care of it"

[KimchiKakashi]

Something this short film does better than most is the concept of true horror, not just a cheap jump scare. We're lead to believe that the lights keep her safe from this thing. However true horror is realizing that there's no escape and that any last bit of hope you had is now gone. Even though the lights were on, none of it ever mattered anyway. She was dead the moment it appeared in her hallway

[D-Loop]

No words, no excessive\cheap jump scares, and in less than 3 min, he made a better horror movie than most of the current trash nowadays. I salute you, my friend.

[ReallyWeirdVideos]

You pulled off the impossible feat of giving the audience a jumpscare without any sudden rise in audio

[ryantiz]

It’s amazing how they got her to be in the official movie for just like 45 seconds

[KYoung-kjhr]

This short film proves that it doesn't always take a huge budget, lots of fake blood or CGI effects to create suspense and fear. You just need a filmmaker who understands his job and knows how to create horror in the mind of the viewer.

[JinLightning]

Is it weird that the scariest part for me was the running footsteps?

[bransen]

WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE COMMENTS?? GET BACK UP THERE SOLDIER

[eyelesspulse]

0:17 That right there. That is the exact moment I am walking out of the house with the lights on and and burning it to the ground. HELL no

[derikofficial]

Ghosts are scared of 3 things
1) Any metal object
2) Holy Water
3) Blankets( does damage to them)

[MaiSelph]

6yrs. I've watched the movie. But... I still can't watch this without hiding in the comments section! 😰

[svillegassmusic]

"Yeah, I'm just going to go to sleep after I just discovered that there is a ghost living in my house. I hope nothing bad happens to me"

[Oxiitocyn]

Here's a breakdown of what makes this is so scary and so effective all without being what I would consider a jump-scare

The first thing you see is that the film starts off a little eerie. More than that is that the film starts off by showing you the rules. Something is there when it's dark. You never actually get told the rules, but you completely understand them and to a degree they make you feel comfortable

From those rules we make assumptions. If I'm a director of a movie and I'm a good director, my entire movie is going to revolve around what you think and it's going to include that to make a complete experience. If I've shown you this rule that something is there in the dark but it disappears when the light is on, now I've created a paradigm of what you think. If the light is on, you can drop your guard.

Now that you know the rules, you need a reason to be unsettled. Just for that, they show you your first scare. It's a little bit loud but I wouldn't qualify it as a jump scare because there's not quite the same build up. You see the creature of the whole time and all it did was move, but that movement shows you that not only is it fast but in the light it doesn't just disappear. It moves. You find yourself debating. Do you keep the lights on and not know where it is? Or do you keep the lights off and watch this terrible creature?

When she goes to bed and we hear the running in the hallway, we get scared again. We're led to believe the creature doesn't do anything for no reason, and it clearly is aware of the presence of the woman, so as far as we know the running could mean that it might burst through the doorway. But no.

Then in a great subversion of expectations, the light starts flickering but this short film doesn't take the route of many movies. Is the creature in the room? Well not yet, and when we see the reason for the light flickering the creature didn't do that either. It was just the lamp not plugged in all the way. You almost wonder why there was no hint that the creature DID mess with the lights, it's because this film has tricked you.

then finally we see a horror that chills us to the Bone. We see the creature for a brief second in full view with no darkness. Our false sense of security has been destroyed. This whole time we thought she was only limited to the dark, but now that we see nothing can stop her, we feel a dread in our stomach wondering what she will do when the lights are off

[XxRobloxPlayerxX]

I've watched this like 300 times and those footsteps running down the hallway always give me goosebumps.

[cadenpresley]

It's crazy how something simple like this turned into a full feature film. I loved the short film, and I especially loved the feature film.