FTG-Nerd Review: Red Lights (Movie)

Rodrigo Cortés has written and directed his own movie about paranormal investigation. Is it a masterpiece of cinema or a farce in disguise?

STORY

Red Lights is a story about the team of Dr Margaret Matheson, played by Sigourney Weaver (Cabin in the Woods, Avatar, Alien), and Dr Tom Buckley, played by Cillian Murphy (In Time, Inception, Batman Begins), investigating supposed paranormal events, finding out how they actually happen and exposing them as farces. When they aren’t doing that Margaret Matheson is a lecturer at a university and Tom Buckley is her assistant. The university decides it’s time for a budget cut and Margaret’s department is the perfect place to start. Unsurprisingly neither of them are happy with it and Tom sees an opportunity to put their paranormal investigations department back on the map in a major way by exposing Simon Silver, portrayed by Robert De Niro (Killer Elite, Limitless).

Simon Silver is a blind psychic who’s come out of retirement to have one last tour, and it seems that he’s the only successful paranormal that hasn’t been exposed. Buckley thinks that if they investigate Silver they’ll be able to figure him out and put an end to their profession being a laughing stock. Margaret warns him that it’s a bad idea but Tom decides to investigate Simon Silver alone anyway, because as she said “There are two types of people out there with a special gift; the ones who really think they have some kind of power and the other guys who think we can’t figure them out. They’re both wrong.” But has he actually encountered a supernatural force that he can’t explain?

Robert De Niro puts in a powerful performance as Simon Silver

OVERVIEW

Red Lights was an entertaining film with an interesting story, good effects and superb acting, even from the supporting cast. Sigourney Weaver played her role brilliantly inflicting arrogance and emotion into Matheson seamlessly while Robert De Niro as usual put in a stellar performance through Simon Silver creating a powerfully believable character. Cillian Murphy, though, stole the show with an amazing performance as Tom Buckley. His character evolves as the movie goes on and Cillian captures Buckley’s mentality and range of emotions perfectly.

The visual tricks throughout the movie were great and so was the soundtrack, composed by Victor Reyes (Buried), that perfectly portraying every tense and unexpected moment note for note which added intensity to the atmosphere of the movie.

The intriguing Tom Buckley

One downside to the movie was the ending, which was quite confusing. Without spoiling anything I’ll say that the end seemed unnecessarily ambiguous, not because it wanted to leave the film open to interpretation or a sequel, but because it wasn’t well explained, but it’s hard to properly convey without spoilers.

Overall Red Lights was an entertaining movie, it provided an interesting story with great acting and a great atmospheric feel. I don’t think it’s anything groundbreaking that will be winning any Oscars but it wasn’t a terrible waste of time either. Despite the odd ending it was a well thought out film and is worth a watch if you’re curious.