Lights Out (2013 film)

Lights Out is a 2013 Swedish supernatural horror short film. David F. Sandberg handled directing, writing, producing, shooting, and scoring, while his wife Lotta Losten appears as the lead. It debuted online on December 30, 2013, via Vimeo and YouTube. This short later inspired a 2016 feature-length film of the same name, also directed by Sandberg.

The plot follows a woman (Losten) on a dark, rainy night. After turning off a hallway light, she spots a long-haired, humanlike silhouette at the far end. Flipping the switch on and off makes the figure appear and disappear. When it suddenly moves inches from her face, she tapes the switch in the "on" position. Later, in bed with a lamp on and the hallway door ajar, she hears creaking. The hallway light flickers and goes out. Footsteps approach, and she hides under the blanket. The door opens by itself. The lamp flickers; she pushes its plug firmly into the power strip, and the light stabilizes. The hallway light clicks back on, and the door is only slightly open again. Relieved, she then sees a monstrous humanoid with all-white eyes and an open mouth at her bedside table. The monster turns off the lamp, and the screen goes dark.

Production involved essentially no budget, relying solely on Sandberg and Losten. They used two lights and two rooms. Equipment included a Blackmagic cinema camera with a Tokina 11-16 lens, a Zoom H4N recorder with a Røde NTG1 microphone, an IKEA paper lantern, a 375-watt photo bulb, a Chinese knockoff redhead light from eBay, a Manfrotto tripod, a homemade dolly made from PVC pipe, a piece of IKEA shelving, and skate wheels. The ghost’s appearance and disappearance were achieved mainly through split-screen. Sandberg explained in an interview about the 2016 adaptation that whenever the ghost shares a frame with another character, it’s a split screen: shoot with her, then without her, then combine.

The short was initially entered into the Bloody Cuts Horror Challenge, where it became a finalist and Sandberg won Best Director. Months later, it gained popularity online, jumping from about 8,000 views to over 1 million, attracting Hollywood attention. As of March 2026, the YouTube video has 18 million views. It received critical acclaim, winning Best Short at FANT Bilbao 2014 and Best Director in the Who's There Film Challenge.