Don’t Turn Out the Lights (2024) review

The initial set up for Don’t Turn Out the Lights is solid, but the horror thriller loses its way once it has to deliver on paying off all the creepy tension buildup.

Horror films relying on some malevolent force have a tougher battle in terms of sustaining the scares. And it’s even tougher when said force keeps its victims in a set location. Cabins in the woods tend to work best with this genre, but an RV as the main setting?

Give the Don’t Turn Out the Lights director/screenwriter Andy Fickman (Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2) credit for at least having a different approach. Too bad that approach didn’t lead to a fun thriller with some unique kills and genuine frights.

Seven friends get together for a road trip to a music festival. Birthday girl Olivia (Crystal Lake Evans) has got the old high school gang back together. The road trip includes her BFFs Carrie (Bella DeLong), Sarah (Amber Janea) and Gaby (Ana Zambrana); her boyfriend, Michael (Jarrett Austin Brown) and his college roommate Jason (John Bucy). Naturally habitual stoner Chris (Daryl Tofa-Soriano) is along for the ride to provide the “party favors.”

Michael borrowed his uncle’s ratty RV, which instantly raises some flags as Olivia hardly seems like she’d be down for a roughing it style RV. She seems a full-on glamper. Carrie and Sarah both are intrigued by Jason, which Fickman spends enough time building to suggest something will come of it. That is not the case.

Fickman also devotes too much time to aerial shots showing the RV heading along the road and montages with the gang goofing off and having fun. They’re probably not as obnoxious as the genre demands to root for their terrifying and gruesome deaths, but Fickman doesn’t prioritize too much character development either.

After encountering some shady weirdos at a gas station, they take a wrong turn and promptly lose cell phone service. Just once it’d be great if one member of the party had a cell booster handy. And it certainly seems that this festival is big enough that there would be signage or a main route that most people would take to avoid getting lost in some back woods.

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Don’t Turn Out the Lights starts tumbling down once the RV gets disabled. The gang starts immediately making questionable (read totally insane) decisions. This is when the film starts careening off the rails. It’s one of those situations where the characters have to act stupidly in order to keep the film moving. And why Fickman felt the need to lean into the trope that would leave the crew in The Blackening cringing, is a real mystery.

Fickman also doesn’t have much insight on the mindset of Gen Z college students. They’re not going to behave and talk like Gen Xers and very unlikely to start acting like they’re in an early 1980s horror movie.

The Don’t Turn Out the Lights crew also makes horror movie no-no’s that Gen Z fodder just inherently wouldn’t make. Like continuing to head into the woods upon hearing demonic sounding taunts mentioning them by name. And they certainly wouldn’t be traipsing off alone.

There’s a decent scene when some of the crew try to explain away all the craziness as a prank. But then Fickman botches the landing by having two of them try and disprove the prank by “going live” to their followers…despite no cell service. Seems like calling a tow truck or the police would be more useful than a stream.

Most of the film’s death scenes are along the leave it to the viewer’s imagination variety. There’s some measure of dismemberment and what sounds like some beast with sharp claws, but beyond a few cut off limbs there’s nothing to be squeamish about.

The cast is fine. DeLong is positioned as the final girl despite being a relative blank slate and not in the traditional virginal, we can’t go too crazy guys “good girl” character manner either. Janea and Zambrana bring more energy and liveliness while Tofa-Soriano goes a bit too hammy with his take on a high genius.

Another downside to the setting is it leads to Fickman repeating ideas. Maybe revisiting some kills would be fine in Don’t Turn Out the Lights 2, but borrowing the same kill scenario from earlier in the film shows a lack of creativity. Or maybe a concept that needed another few drafts. And definitely a better title. Don’t Leave the RV would make a lot more sense than the non-existent light issue.

And it wouldn’t have hurt Fickman or the film to offer up a tangible reason why this random group of friends are being targeted by this force. Does whatever that’s out there just hate RVs? Can’t stand the festival? What about those books found in the RV or that mysterious tattoo on Carrie’s neck? Just anything would have helped give Don’t Turn Out the Lights more substance.

Horror thriller fans looking for a good scare probably need to catch another ride. This one has too many problems to justify taking the road trip.

Rating: 3 out of 10

Photo Credit: Quiver Distribution

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