Don't Turn Out the Lights

Don't Turn Out the Lights, directed by Andy Fickman, takes what could have been a decently creepy premise-a group of friends trapped in a RV stuck in some haunted woods where the ghosts only appear in darkness-and somehow manages to make you root for the ghosts to win. Why? Because the characters are so insufferable, you're practically begging for them to get picked off.

Let's start with the ensemble cast of what can only be described as the most obnoxious caricatures of human beings imaginable. There are so many scenes where their behavior doesn't make any sense, filled with long, boring, and tone def conversations when they should be fighting for their lives. Seriously, you've just lost a bunch of your friends to an unseen malevolent and violent force, time for some giggles and sharing your thoughts? Why are you suddenly so calm and relaxed immediately after being terrorized? It makes no sense.

It's as if the writers have forgotten what makes a character likable. The whole crew is soooo dumb, and generally being unbearable that any emotional connection to them is impossible. Remember when horror movies used to have characters you actually cared about? Now, it's like the scriptwriters actively want us to hate everyone. At least that way, we don't feel bad when they inevitably meet their gory demise.

And let's talk about how nobody in this movie has any self-preservation instinct whatsoever. They spend a solid 30 minutes of screen time making the worst decisions imaginable. Don't go into the basement? Guess where they're going. Don't split up? Of course they split up. The ghosts don't even need to try-they're practically begging to be haunted.

Would I recommend this; No, Don't Turn Out the Lights is a masterclass in how to make your audience want to flip the switch off on the entire cast. It's like Hollywood forgot how to write characters you can root for, and instead gave us a group of people we'd rather see disappear into the dark.

A group of obnoxious absolute idiots set out on a road trip in which nothing interesting happens for the first hour. A gaggle of bad actors pretending to be college students screech inauthentic pablum at each other, run afoul of some cartoon hillbillies, and generally make the stupidest possible decisions in any given situation. The characters are college students as college students would be envisaged and written by a 50-year-virgin who had gone to college but who never once interacted socially with anyone. Anyway, some ridiculous and not-at-all-scary shenanigans happen and yada, yada, yada I just kept hoping every character would die already so this steaming puddle of loose donkey excrement would finally end.

I wasn't expecting much when I decided to watch this movie: just wanted a watchable standard horror. The movie starts off typical for a horror movie. A group of friends get together to attend some festival, they get lost, and then strange events occur when they're unexplainably stranded in the middle of nowhere . The concept seemed fine at first, so I figured I'd be in for at least a decent 90 mins

The movie is unwatchable though. The acting from everyone is awful and cringy. And the characters are not likable. Their jokes (eg the "Screw Marry Kill" game) and behavior (eg drugs) make them appear more annoying than charming. The only likable character is the ex-Marine, who unfortunately doesn't stay long. Instead, we get stuck with the girls who keep screaming and arguing like divas to the point where I, as a viewer, couldn't get behind them and root for them. When strange events start happening, the ladies go on and on about "hey, maybe this is all a prank" to the point where I wondered why they would make our protagonists so dumb.

Couldn't get past the constant obnoxious yelling and the insincere acting. Turned it off after 25 min.

It seems like they tried to do the typical group of friends go off to celebrate a weekend and get killed one by one but the characters are so loud and obnoxious that we just couldn't watch anymore.

Also the music is too loud and obnoxious and just doesn't fit with certain scenes.

I really wish we could've gotten through the movie because the movie cover and trailer seemed like it would've been really good.

I would've liked to see the characters slow down, be sincere and take the role seriously (loud and aggressive does not mean you're doing it right).

School friends reunite for a birthday outing to a music festival. One of them brings his new roommate who is a Marine. They are driving an RV. They get harassed by a couple of trucker creeps who push them onto a side road. They get lost and then stopped in the middle of nowhere.

I like the start. I like adding a newcomer to this annoying group. That has potential to stir things up. The two trucker creeps are standard. It's a nice way to strand the group in the middle of nowhere and the countdown to festival forces them to keep going. For a low-budget horror, it's fine.

When the RV stops, the movie starts on a long descent. The story just throws a lot of non-sense horror tropes at this thing. Some of it is at cross-purposes. None of this is particularly interesting. It is just one victim after another. The movie is throwing everything and the kitchen sink at this plot. It gets tiresome.