Nerdly » ‘Don’t Turn Out the Lights’ Review

21st Mar2025

‘Don’t Turn Out the Lights’ Review

by Alain Elliott

Stars: Curtis Brockelman, Jarrett Austin Brown, John Bucy, Jasper Cole, Bella DeLong, Crystal Lake Evans, Avery Harrah, Amber Janea | Written and Directed by Andy Fickman

When reviewing a horror movie for Nerdly, I didn’t think I would ever begin my review with a sentence like ‘from the director of She’s the Man, The Game Plan, Race To Witch Mountain and Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, comes a new horror movie’, but here we are.

Andy Fickman is the said director and Don’t Turn Out the Lights shows a group of friends travelling in a motorhome to a music festival when they come across something supernatural after their mode of transport breaks down. It’s no doubt a story that horror movie fans will have heard before but it does at least bring a few surprises.

First, I will get my biggest annoyance with the movie out of the way. I absolutely hated all of the main six or seven characters. This isn’t unusual for low-budget horror to be honest and the main reason might just be that I am old and they are young. There’s a good chance that viewers of a similar age (late teens, early twenties) might find the characters okay, or actually relatable. Maybe even likeable?! My assumption is that they represent a good percentage of young people but that doesn’t stop them from being mostly annoying. I tried to see the best in them. The main female character is clearly the one the writer wants you to root for and she is the most likeable. And the one guy who doesn’t really want to be there but gets dragged along (formerly an Army guy) I could relate to somewhat – probably because he didn’t want to be there. But they are all such cliched characters. The one who takes lots of drugs, the annoying best friend who’s a bit of a bitch, the self-centred birthday girl, the tough guy that just wants to look after everyone. I could go on. The characters are the weakest point of the movie.

That said, the actors are pretty great. I might not like the characters but they all get their roles and play them really well. It is a little difficult to act against what is basically an invisible villain here. The story’s supernatural element (without spoiling too much) means there isn’t a figure for the group to go up against. Strange things happen to them, they’re never sure if things are happening or if it’s all in their heads. There’s no doubt the film loses something from not having a villain but I also liked this approach to the horror. It gives the writer and director almost free reign for anything can happen. And plenty does! The deaths and scary parts of the movie generally work very well.

Don’t Turn Out the Lights does slip into more clichés unfortunately. We even get creepy locals getting into arguments at the petrol station and then chasing them down the road. Something I feel like I’ve seen a thousand times in genre movies. But despite all of its faults, I enjoyed Don’t Turn Out the Lights. It runs along at a good pace, there are plenty of scares and fun moments and it leaves things nicely open – those looking for an explanation for everything will be disappointed. Among the obvious slasher/horror movie-cliched influences, I see bits of The Cabin in the Woods and (Christmas horror) Dead End here, and that’s no bad thing!

If you’ve ever wondered if the director of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 could make a fun horror movie, here’s your answer! Don’t Turn Out the Lights doesn’t do anything special and long-time horror fans will have seen this plenty before but there’s still plenty to enjoy.