Red Lights
Red Lights Image
See the trailer
Metascore
36 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 22 Critics What's this?

User Score
5.1 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 13 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
Rate this:
  • Starring: Cillian Murphy, Elizabeth Olsen, Robert De Niro, Sigourney Weaver
  • Summary: Veteran paranormal researchers Dr. Margaret Matheson and Tom Buckley debunk fraudulent claims of ghost whispering, faith healing and other psychic phenomena by detecting what Matheson calls “red lights,” the subtle tricks behind every staged supernatural occurrence. But when the legendary blind psychic Simon Silver comes out of retirement after 30 years, his once-fearless adversary Matheson warns Buckley to back off, fearing reprisal from the powerful Silver. Determined to discredit Silver, Buckley and his star student use every tool at their disposal to uncover the truth behind the charismatic, spoon-bending, mind reader. But Buckley is forced to reexamine his own core beliefs as his quest builds to an explosive conclusion. (Millennium Entertainment)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 22
  3. Negative: 9 out of 22
  1. The Playlist
    Reviewed by: William Goss
    Jul 25, 2012
    83
    The truth is, while Red Lights isn't terrifically scary, it is thrilling in other ways, constantly playful and often tongue-in-cheek as it works through the hokey conventions of the genre.
  2. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Alison Willmore
    Jul 12, 2012
    60
    The movie muddles to a rug-pulling ending that doesn't, despite its efforts, shed new light on what's come before.
  3. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    Jul 26, 2012
    38
    The storytelling proceeds in such a halting manner, with De Niro's speeches going on and on and on, that before long you'd kill for an easy scare.

See all 22 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 1 out of 2
  1. dharma
    7
    Red Lights is an obscure thriller that attracts a lot of great talents, a genre that was popularised by 'Sixth Sense' a number of years back. Slow burn plot, talky, with a twist in the end. It;s done quite well here. Too bad nobody cares anymore. It is actually meticulously researched by the Writer-Director, and while the last third went out like any other supernatural thriller out there, it does raise a lot of issues about paranormal activities, whether they are fake or not. De Niro again plays the usual 'I'm sooooo creepy' routine that he is famous for. It's the nuanced performances of the ever reliable Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver that elevates this material.… Expand
  2. FDT44
    3
    Sadly, it seems any filmmaker billing De Niro in their movie, now, isn't the least concerned with what the erstwhile acting legend does; casting him is supposed to be enough. Though such lionizing of a cinematic icon should be respected, and the actor himself should relish it, the billboard on which De Niro's face is plastered in "Red Lights," of his character Simon Silver, once again avers with undoubtable certainty, that he is merely dress-up for any trash that happens to call his name by phone; even sadder, is the realization that the trash and the man are slowly becoming synonymous with each other. This is true, but De Niro's not all to blame. From the director of the claustrophobic thriller "Buried," Rodrigo Cortes helms, this time, a psychological grabber starring Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy as a pair of full-time scholars and part-time paranormal debunkers. Their belief, the ESP, the ghosts, apparitions, telekinesis, psychic surgical treatment, are only superficially eerie acts, filled with sleighted gags. And, that sums up the film too: loud sounds, seemingly spooky ambiance with its share of door-slam-shocks, levitation, crackling power outages and the all too familiar candle blowouts with people gathered around the dining room table, and many others you've seen before, its ultimately mostly all, a campy mess; a film laden with busting bulbs and magic tricks but little semblance to cohering characters and dialogue. Moreover, a movie about extrasensory perception, you'd think, would have some form of self-image and perception, but the only thing this psy-thriller "grabs" is a mirror, at which point it insists on shattering before it can take a look. Sure, not all is lost amidst the fragments--Toby Young as the parapsychologist and genre-connoisseur Weaver (she knows where the "light switch" is, per se)--but the characters all feel so stranded in the darkness with no exit anywhere in sight. Others, namely Young's on-screen girlfriend, Olson, appears only fitting in the picture insofar as to confirm Young's otherwise implied affinity for women, and incidentally to show the audience some respite in occassionally revealing a pretty face instead of a dark, cacophonous room. Also, Weaver, notwithstanding her valiant attempts to fulfill the script, can't circumvent her expositorily informative lines that don't do justice to the already dullness of some of her counterparts. Initially, the film does start intriguingly, at least cinematographically, with dramatic shifts in camera movement and delightful set-locations. But, one can't expect the scenery alone to help this shock-limper through the long-haul. Enter the aforementioned De Niro, who hides behind those big, black glasses, and further, those cosmetic cataracts (playing a blind, spoon-bending thaumaturge) and wears his fading reputation proudly; needless to say, De Niro should have taken a tip from his character and performed his own vanishing act--far, far away from taking this role. His Simon Silver-paranormal-superstar persona doesn't come across as mysteriously creepy, but rather desperate and frankly, not all that interesting. Additionally, in what has been called a "mind-blowing conclusion," "Red Lights," endows an ending that is sure to mix things up, but rather than having a twist that adds to what one already knows, it ironically pulls the rug out from under itself, and takes it a step further in nullifying that which its sleight-of-hand narrative had set out to explain in the first place; it makes the pervasive foibles of the film all the more intolerable and undeniably unforgiveable to the time ill-spent. This one missed all-too-many signs urging it to "Stop." Arguably the biggest turn-for-the-worse and misfire of 2012.… Expand

Trailers

Current Movie Releases

Full List »
  1. Argo
    Metascore: 86
  2. Looper
    Metascore: 84
  3. Frankenweenie
    Metascore: 74
  4. Wreck-It Ralph
    Metascore: 73
  5. End of Watch
    Metascore: 70
  6. Dredd
    Metascore: 59
  7. Cloud Atlas
    Metascore: 55
  8. Sinister
    Metascore: 53
  9. Hotel Transylvania
    Metascore: 47
  10. Taken 2
    Metascore: 45
  11. Chasing Mavericks
    Metascore: 44
  12. Paranormal Activity 4
    Metascore: 40
  13. Resident Evil: Retribution
    Metascore: 39
  14. The Words
    Metascore: 37
  15. House at the End of the Street
    Metascore: 31
  16. Silent Hill: Revelation 3D
    Metascore: 15
All Current Movies »