Don’t Turn Out The Lights – Review

Don’t Turn Out The Lights is pretty much a paint by numbers horror. A bunch of twenty somethings, who start off ok but quickly descend into being annoying, get together for the crazy party girl Olivia’s birthday. They’re heading to a big music festival in her boyfriend Michael’s RV.

On the way they meet the stereotypical bigoted rednecks, go into a bar where literally everyone stops what they’re doing and stares at them. I kid you not, even the Jukebox appears to stop. Then outside the white haired old crone laughs maniacally for absolutely no reason.

Of course these kids are unperturbed by the reactions and warning to turn back and got the highway, no they’ll follow the map onwards into the no mobile phone signal woods.

Ghastliness ensues and the old RV has a meltdown, leaving them stranded and surrounded by some unseen force. Supernatural, beast or man? Who knows.

The acting in this is decent, it starts off well and although the setting is absolutely bizarre it’s easy to just let it off with an “it’s a low budget film” excuse. Once the gang get into the RV, and the more trouble they get into, the characters just become unfathomably stupid and almost painfully unlikeable. The incessant screaming from the girls got old fast. I was praying for them to die to give my ears a rest.

The setting of the RV is a clever choice for a low budget film, and works well in parts, but not in others. There’s some decent tension building but combined with character stupidity and the power and strength of whatever is outside, there’s no way it would withstand the assault. Closing flimsy windows wouldn’t really help would it?

There’s a particular scene where the girls, having decided all this bloodshed is clearly a prank, chill out and laugh and giggle and worry about how they look as they get ready to go live. Go live? The whole point is there’s no mobile coverage, so how’s that work? Surely if you could go live, you’d be going live straight to Ghostbusters, or at the very least the police.

Overall this isn’t a bad little low budget horror. It’s shot really nicely, the sound is good and production values appear high despite the budgetary constraints.

It’s let down massively by unlikeable characters, a weak script with far too much screaming and plot points that make very little sense.

But listen. It’s got decent jump scares and enough atmosphere to just about get it by so, turn your brain off, grab some popcorn with your mates and watch this on a Friday night and you’ll have a lot of fun.

Don’t Turn Out The Lights is available on digital 17 March 2025 from 101 Films.