Star Trek Beyond may have been the big winner this past weekend at the U.S. box office, but one of the other movies that opened July 22, Lights Out, managed to also do well for itself. The horror movie has not only scored over $27 million domestically at the time of this writing, but it's also earned many positive reviews from critics and regular moviegoers. Thanks to this performance, it just earned itself a sequel from New Line Cinema.
According to Deadline, rector David F. Sandberg will return to helm Lights Out 2 with his his wife Lotta Losten, but he's not the only member of the crew coming back. Eric Heisserer is back to pen the sequel's script, while horror veteran James Wan will produce again. There's no word on which, if any, of the actors from the first movies will reprise their roles. Sandberg's wife, Lotta Losten, will also be involved in some capacity, just like with Lights Out. Considering that the first movie was made with only a $4.9 million budget and has already earned so much in less than a week, it's no wonder that the studio quickly ordered a sequel.
Lights Out stars Teresa Palmer as Rebecca, a young woman who has a history of mental illness. When her younger brother, Martin, starts to experience similar events that she did when she was younger, Rebecca starts investigating what's been terrorizing Martin, and she soon learns about an entity named Diana who is connected to their mother, Sophie. It has all the elements of a good horror movie, and by good, I mean terrifying. Ominous lighting, deformed faces, a supernatural threat and plenty of screaming. The movie's cast includes Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia, Maria Bello, Billy Burke and Alicia Vela-Bailey.
Lights Out originated as one of the right short films that David F. Sandberg directed in Sweden. He and his wife entered the three-minute version of Lights Out into a British film competition, and while they didn't win, Sandberg did score the Best Director award. The film got so many views online that eventually New Line called him, this leading to the feature film version. As an added bonus, Sandberg also mentioned that he's in talks with the studio to acquire one of the short films, and hopes he can turn several of the others into movies as well. With these potential projects, Lights Out 2 and him also directing Annabelle 2, Sandberg has a bright future ahead of him as a horror genre contributor.
If you want to see what the latest horror hit is all about, Lights Out is now playing in theaters. We'll keep you updated on what's happening with the sequel as more information comes in.
