"DON'T TURN OUT THE LIGHTS" (2023) Leaves Us In The Dark (REVIEW)
We watch a lot of movies here at Macabre Daily, and it affords us an interesting perspective on patterns and trends within the genre. Particularly in independent films. One thing that is almost always a throughline in indie horror is the need for containment. On one hand, budgets often can’t afford multiple locations or sets and on the other, it creates some interesting restrictions that force filmmakers to contain their ideas without sacrificing impact or intent. Some do this better than others, and many indie horror films will thrive because of it. Others will struggle to adapt to these limitations by having issues with pacing and meandering or overstuffed plots, but we know for a fact no one sets out to make a bad movie. The single location and threat from outside is a trope we’ve seen across sub-genres, and that’s the premise of “Don’t Turn Out The Lights” from writer/director Andy Fickman and on digital in the UK through 101 Films on March 17, 2025.
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
A group of friends embark on a road trip to a music festival, oblivious to the supernatural horrors that await them along the way.
HOW IS IT?
Sometimes as soon as a movie starts you’re concerned if it’s going to be for you, and that’s how things began with “Don’t Turn Out The Lights.” Maybe it was the screaming and insufferable archetypal collegiate-aged students, or perhaps the prolonged runtime that dragged on what could’ve been an 80-minute movie. Then again, it also could be the complete lack of explanation or reason for what’s going on and why we should care about it. The thing is, “Don’t Turn Out The Lights” isn’t a poorly made film and there are some genuinely effective moments and scenes, but they’re completely overridden by a script that feels incomplete.
The first act of “Don’t Turn Out The Lights” feels a lot like an homage to “The Cabin in the Woods,” except the characters just aren’t likable. A group of friends that feel like a hodgepodge of incompatible stereotypes embark on a road trip in an RV to a music festival and along the way act like the worst kind of people you’d ever want to meet. They’re self-absorbed and loud, and they don’t seem like friends at all as they’re always at each other's throats. As these things go, they piss off some local racists who chase them down and cause them to lose their way, leading to being stranded in a strange place where something is outside and picking them off one by one. Like many indie films, we don’t leave the RV much once they’re stranded and that leads to us having to watch them blame, insult, and tear one another down. They devolve so fast into fighting that it makes one wonder why they would all agree to do this together regardless if it was for someone’s birthday as it is here. How are we supposed to care about these characters if they don’t care about each other, and without having any context that is lathered on through exposition we are just left with a feeling of “who cares?” What makes things more confusing is how this story needs almost two hours to be told, and with an ending that asks the audience to accept that it was all for nothing.
We’ve often lamented before about the length of films, and for what it’s worth we are seeing more indie films coming in with more concise and efficient runtimes. This isn’t a rally against a long movie so much as it is a call for better editing and scripting, and in the case of “Don’t Turn Out The Lights” that could’ve done wonders for the film overall. The moments of tension when whatever’s outside attacks are effective, and some of the more surreal elements the film throws at you are fun, but the script just tosses ideas at you and moves on leading to an end that doesn’t clarify anything about what we’ve seen and took eons to arrive at. The prolongment of the plot hurts the pacing which has a kind of peak and valley pattern that never fully takes off because there has to be a bunch of dialogue between the action scenes. Even if the pacing is fixed, we still don’t get any satisfaction from seeing what is going on outside and the promises of “gore” hardly materialize. The performances are effective as the characters come off as unlikable, which may be more attributed to the script than the actors themselves.
LAST RITES
“Don’t Turn Out The Lights” is unfortunately too long and not compelling enough to recommend. The lack of any clarification and the poorly drawn highly-unlikable characters make us wish they suffered less dull fates.
THE GORY DETAILS
Directed By
Written By
Starring
Where can you watch it?
“Don’t Turn Out The Lights” arrives on digital in the UK on 17 March 2025 courtesy of 101 Films
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