Review of Red Lights (2012) by Maksim B — 17 Mar 2013

Red Lights is a creepy and suspenseful low-budget thriller, with stellar cast and supernatural plot, good enough to compel. In spite of its lack of originality and familiar suspense tricks, the supernatural concept and the excellent performances ensure much better than expected two hours of thrills. Undeservedly panned by the critics, this movie is actually a fine thriller not worse than other recent big budget Hollywood flops.

The start of Red Lights is definitely a straightforward one, as we get introduced to Dr. Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant Tom Buckley (Cillian Murhpy) while exposing a fake medium in her house. It quickly becomes clear why they have dedicated their lives to exposing people claiming to be mediums, mentalist or to have supernatural powers and abilities. The real mystery gets introduced when the retired clairvoyant Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) returns on stage and it gets strengthen by Dr.Matheson refusal (fear) to listen to Buckley's calls for exposing Silver. This works very successfully on creating a charisma around Silver and his probably true powers, combined with the small "a-la-M.N.Shyamalan" tricks and overall approach, director Rodrigo Cortez manages to build up the level of suspense towards the mid-part of the movie.

Despite some unnecessary sub-plot extensions, Red Lights maintains its grip on the audience until the last third of the movie. After Buckley is left alone against Silver, the story gets some sort of hysteric and occult elements, which do not quite match the first part of the movie.This leads to a very typical M.N.Shyamalan- twist, which could be predicted with relative ease by the fans of Shyamalan. This creates a small disappointment, as one would have expected to see another original suspense coming from Rodrigo Cortez, like he did with Buried in 2010. Nevertheless, this final and small disappointment is compensated by the overall excellent performances of the Weaver-De Niro-Murphy trio. It is always more than curiosity to see De Niro as a mysterious clairvoyant, while Cillian Murphy delivers another remarkable B-movie performance.

In conclusion, Red Lights certainly has some issues with regard to pacing and being original. However, it compels, it entertains and involves the audience in its story. This, combined with the performances is good enough for me to say that Red Lights is a decent low-budget supernatural thriller, which deserves to get the chance of being seen.