Red Lights

Rodrigo Cortes' last film was the technically impressive, if overly praised, Buried. For Red Lights Cortes has a much wider palette in which to mix his ideas and he gives us a film that will be written off as corny and far fetched by some, but still gives enough thrills and food for thought to make the price of the cinema ticket worthwhile. Paranormal investigator Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) spend the majority of their time researching, and then exposing, bizarre occurances. Seemingly finding this too easy the re-appearance out of the blue of world famous psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) gives them a harder target to expose. However, is Silver really a fake? The list is as long of my arm of recent films that deal with a similar subject matter (i.e. sceptics who debunk unexplained phenomena discovers phenomena that they really can't explain), so what makes this one stand out? Well, nothing really, but it makes sure the things it does well out shine the lesser moments. Similar to Chris Sparling's screenplay for Buried, Cortes (doubling as writer here) makes the smart decision to keep his characters in the dark as much as the audience as to whether Silver is a fraud or not, helped in no part by Murphy's smart performance as the increasingly befuddled and unnerved Buckley. Weaver and De Niro fare less well, but that's more to do with their parts, which are more ciphers for Buckley to feed off as opposed to well rounded characters. This isn't really scary (most of the jumps are of the loud music variety, though some are still effective), but what it lacks in thrills in makes up for in mental stimulation. This genre of film always draws an audience due to it's subject matter. Whether it's ghostly goings on, demonic possessions or paranormal activity our interest is drawn to the topic as, whether you're a sceptic or not, no-one can prove 100% that one party is wrong and the other is correct. Cortes' himself has said that the film is for entertainment purposes only and doesn't reflect his actual feelings on the subject matter, but the conclusion (with its nice twist) suggests which way his viewpoint may lean. In addition, you can't knock Cortes' commitment here as he spent 18 months researching this topic. Regardless of that, this film is similar to his previous effect in that fact that (arguably) it's only an average production, but its certainly intriguing enough for you to dip your toe in to check out its temperature.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Entertains more often than not, aided by Murphy's nice turn and a subject matter that always intrigues. Rating: 7/10.