Directed by Rodrigo Cortés, a popular upcoming director that also directed 2010’s Buried, Red Lights is a thriller set in England, filmed in Spain/Canada, and featuring a fairly globally representative cast. With fairly indistinguishable use of locations and the utilisation of a very international cast, there seems to be a great emphasis placed here on making the film as internationally marketable as possible, whilst on the surface it may be international audience friendly, however, at its core this is a film that’d struggle to find any audience whatsoever if it wasn’t filled with such star quality as can be found here.
With a plot progression so bad that it leaves you convinced by the end that you must have missed something, Red Lights is a film that is just far too preposterous for its own good. With the presence of actors such as Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro, and Cillian Murphy, the expectation level at the beginning of the film is therefore set pretty high, especially as the opening of the film is actually pretty promising, what we actually ultimately have here, however, is a film dealing with the subject matter of paranormal activity that is somehow even more ridiculous than most. There are a few plot twists along the way to try and throw you a few curveballs and inject a little excitement into the proceedings, the film fails to ever really shock or astound you, though, and the biggest twist of them all also happens to be the least convincing.
Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver play their parts here as well as possible, the film feels very stiff with its insistence on taking itself so seriously, however, and may actually have benefited from a little more of a comic edge at times to accompany its many clichés. At just under two hours long, Red Lights feels even slower and more cumbersome than it actually is as a result of its extremely wooden nature, and although it does feature a flurry of twists as previously mentioned; some of the twists are just a little too predictable, and the biggest of them all just doesn’t really work all that well.
Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro, and Cillian Murphy have all been involved in some very high profile films throughout the years, all proving their worth on the big screen, appearing in films that have gone down in cinematic history; Red Lights will never be a film of notoriety for them, however, at least not for the right reasons.
UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
