James Wan, who is responsible for seismic shifts in the horror world resulting in not one, but three franchises (Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring), took his talents to producing genre films, specifically for New Line Cinema.
While his Demonic didn’t fare so well, he’s since been on a tear, having produced Annabelle, the spinoff to his Conjuring, and his new franchise, Lights Out (read Kaltyn’s review; Trace’s review), based on a short of the same name. Annabelle was such a box office smash that a sequel is currently filming. And now, on the heels of a strong opening weekend, Lights Out will also be continuing forth.
This would mean that Wan is now responsible for FIVE horror franchises. When it all comes to an end many years from now, it’s going to be hard to debate that there’s any filmmaker who had a greater impact on the genre than Wan. He truly is the modern king of horror that will live among the greats like Wes Craven and John Carpenter.
But I digress, David F. Sandberg saw his Lights Out open in theaters everywhere this weekend. And it was a smash hit (even at #3). The $4.9 million budget genre film has already grossed $27 million domestically and $35 million worldwide after opening last Friday. Sandberg will be returning to helm the sequel, after he finishes directing Annabelle 2 for Wan and his Atomic Monster productions.
Eric Heisserer (check out our must-read interview) will return to write the sequel, Deadline includes. Lawrence Gray will also produce through his Gray Matter banner.
While a bit melodramatic, Lights Out is a superb horror film, and introduces one of the best horror icons since SAW‘s Jigsaw. It’s clear to me that Heisserer was forced to pigeonhole the concept into the script, which limited his ability to really tell a good story. I believe the film’s antagonist, Diana, is going to be one of the most famous horror icons ever, and expect Lights Out 2 to be even better than the first. With Sandberg’s first feature under his belt, and the mythology set free, there’s no reason that Lights Out 2 won’t be up to our horrific standards.
