Trailer Tuesday: Red Lights

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Calling all skeptics! Horror thriller Red Lights is all about scientists out to debunk headline-grabbing psychics, faith healers and supernatural occurrences.

Red Lights features a very strong cast for what looks like glossy genre fare. Cillian Murphy is the physicist assistant of Sigourney Weaver's seasoned paranormal investigator, and the pair have great success until a legendary blind psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) resurfaces after 30 years of retirement. Murphy's character becomes obsessed with exposing the psychic as a fraud but finds himself caught up in increasingly inexplicable events that test his world views. Elizabeth Olsen and Joely Richardson also star.


Now admittedly the concept for Red Lights sounds better than the execution looks in the trailer. Movies like this almost always insist in turning doubters into believers, and evidently this one - from the Spanish director of highly acclaimed, but little seen, claustrophobia tale Buried - is sticking to formula as well.

Having debuted at the Sundance Film Festival at the beginning of the year, Red Lights is currently sitting with a divisive aggregated review score of 50%. Some have loved the film's many, many, many twists while others have dismissed the multiple direction changes as contrived and increasingly ludicrous. Evidently the consciously "smart" Red Lights is a mixed bag, with credible performances and an intriguing start countered by an overwrought, over-explained conclusion. The film may still be worth catching though, particularly if you're in the market for something a bit more cerebral and crafted.

Red Lights is set for a limited US release on 13 July. The film's South African release date has yet to be set.

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