One of the most globally recognized actresses today, Teresa Palmer (“Warm Bodies,” “The Choice,” “Point Break”) now stars in New Line Cinema’s horror-thriller “Lights Out,” in Philippine cinemas Thursday, July 21.
When Rebecca (Palmer) left home, she thought she left her childhood fears behind. Growing up, she was never really sure of what was and wasn’t real when the lights went out… and now her little brother, Martin, is experiencing the same unexplained and terrifying events that had once tested her sanity and threatened her safety. A frightening entity with a mysterious attachment to their mother, Sophie (Maria Bello), has re-emerged. But this time, as Rebecca gets closer to unlocking the truth, there is no denying that all their lives are in danger…once the lights go out.
“I’m a huge horror fan, so I was excited to be a part of this,” says Palmer. “It’s petrifying. The monster in `Lights Out’ is what your nightmares are made of. She truly is the scariest thing you can imagine. I think we equate fear with a dark energy and she’s as dark as you can possibly get, from the way she looks to the way she interacts with the characters in the film. She’s just a total nightmare.”
But as much as there is dysfunction and pain here, there is also love – which, in its way, amplifies the peril for all of them. “Outside the scares,” adds Palmer, “it’s a great dramatic story about a family that’s been derailed by this entity.”
First impressions of Rebecca would indicate a fiercely independent young woman; smart, unsentimental, and hard as nails. Always on her guard. “She comes across as a fighter with a tough exterior,” producer Lawrence Grey says, “but, through the course of the story, we see the sensitivity and compassion inside. Growing up, Rebecca had problems – the kind of problems you don’t talk about.”
Consequently, director David F. Sandberg adds, “She has commitment issues and other difficulties she’s dealing with, because she just never got over what happened when she was a child. Teresa is amazing in bringing all of this to bear in her performance. Her emotions feel so real.”
Going home is certainly not on Rebecca’s agenda. But when she gets a call from the Child Services case worker at her brother’s school, concerned that young Martin has been falling asleep in class, Rebecca has a fair idea what’s been keeping him up at night. What she once tried to rationalize as her own bad dreams and imagination, she now realizes must have been real if it’s happening to him. And if Martin is dealing with the same malevolent force that drove her from the house at 16, she can’t let him face that alone.
“I appreciate the vibrancy that remains in Rebecca, despite all the hardships she’s had to navigate,” Palmer says of her character. “She is clearly wounded by her past, but there’s a determination in her to fight and persevere, regardless of the cards she’s been dealt. Running was the easiest option when it was her alone, but now that she needs to protect Martin she’s ready to get in there and take on whatever it is that’s got him in its grip.”
Opening across the Philippines on Thursday, July 21, 2016, “Lights Out” is distributed in the Philippines by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
