Red Lights

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with two primary characters: university academic Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver), who investigates claims of paranormal phenomena, and her assistant Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy), a physicist. The audience is provided with an insight into the world of the opening section's primary characters while concurrently observing the public reemergence of a psychic, Simon Silver (Robert De Niro).
The ending of the film's first half is signified by the sudden death of Matheson from a chronic vascular condition at the same time that one of Silver's comeback performances takes place, an incident that is particularly significant due to the death of a former nemesis of Silver, a skeptic who investigated the psychic's work, under similar circumstances. Matheson also had a previous encounter with Silver. She recounted a public meeting when Silver had, for an instant, got the best of her by bringing up the subject of her son's spirit (her son was in a vegetative coma and on life support). Matheson agrees only to appear on a televised panel in anticipation of Silver's return. Prior to her death, Matheson refuses to cooperate with Buckley's insistent call to undertake another investigation of Silver, warning Buckley against such an undertaking due to her previous experience with the psychic.
However, following Matheson's death, the assistant becomes increasingly obsessed with investigating Silver for the purpose of exposing the popular psychic as a fraud. During Buckley's efforts to reveal Silver's large-scale trickery, a series of inexplicable events occurs — electronic devices explode, dead birds appear, and Buckley's laboratory is vandalized. Buckley's paranoia intensifies, as he believes Silver is behind these incidents. Buckley's calm and rational disposition eventually degenerates into an obsessiveness that resembles the late Matheson's intense antipathy to paranormal claims. As part of the introduction to the climactic section of the film, Silver agrees to participate in an investigation proposed by an academic from the same university that Matheson was employed by, and Buckley joins the observation team for the tests.
In the final moments of the film, Buckley's assistants manage to reveal the manner in which Silver defrauds the public through a close analysis of the test footage accumulated by Buckley from the university's investigation. At the same time, Buckley exposes Silver at one of the psychic's public performances, and Silver is left dumbfounded. Buckley then reveals to the viewer that he actually possesses paranormal abilities and has been responsible for the inexplicable incidents that have occurred during his investigation of Silver. In a letter to his late mentor, Buckley explains a realization in which he arrives at an understanding that his decision to work with Matheson, despite the possibility of loftier career opportunities as a physicist, was the result of an unconscious attempt to seek others like himself; the revelation clarifies that Buckley's choices were made in spite of his conscious denial of the existence of paranormal activity (such denial is touched on earlier in the film, whereby the character implies that he chose this career because his mother was delayed from seeking critical medical treatment due to advice from a fraud psychic). The letter to Matheson ends with regret that Buckley denied her the consolation of knowing that there is something more, and that now she deserved even more, "everything." Buckley then turns off the life-support machine that is keeping Matheson's son alive. He then walks out of the hospital and concludes his letter to the deceased Matheson: "You can't deny yourself forever".

Tags: paranormal, mystery, flashback

Review:
Psychologist and paranormal investigator Dr. Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant Dr. Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) a physicist travel around debunking supposed paranormal activity from bumps in the night to stage psychics.
With actors such as Signourney Weaver, Cillian Murphy, Toby Jones, Joely Richardson, the delightful Elizabeth Olsen and my all time favourite actor Robert De Niro, anything less than a great film would be a disappointment.
That might have stoked up debate in a good way and generated some more interest in the film.Acting-wise i'm sorry to say i'm always skeptical when Robert De Niro appears in a movie nowadays.
Cilian Murphy's character administered the test, and then left the scene without explaining the point of the exercise, which is a shame.I liked Sigourney Weaver's character in the beginning, but the character turned out to be so poorly threshed out; not a lot better than a caricature of a pseudo-science skeptic.
With all respect to the director/writer though, 'Red Lights' is worth watching based solely on the first 60 minutes because of the idea, as well as the performances of the many talented actors, despite some characters being completely irrelevant and unnecessary.
I saw this movie and i was quite excited about it simply because the plot was somehow familiar yet original..in the sense of their connection with the basic idea of a typical human life's struggle to understand the unexplained phenomena of para or divine potential of human mind which has been never proved or rejected completely in modern science.The starting of the movie might not appeal to most of the people as i also felt that the initial 10-12 minutes were not a good way to begin which simply never connected with the main theme of the movie...but as i said it was ambiguous yet was connected to the movie within the very first thirty minutes or so..yet most of the audience might go with me on this that it was not a good way to start the movie...may be the writing had to be more experimental or visionary to scout a new scenario to feel more majestic enough to build a sense of connectivity with the modern day conflict to accept or reject the thought of something superior than science.But never the less the script yet had enough material to keep the interest of mine going..i was dying to know what actually is gonna happen..thought i might like to add that these movies are totally driven from plot or the thought process yet some clever direction and sound effects and nice acting made it possible for me to enjoy this movie..i will not say it is great but it is decent enough to share with people you know...but don't want to compare it with inception or other psychological thriller of recent times...but still i was not happy the way studio has never taken it seriously.A good budget might have ensured it a more improved run on the predecided media but overall it is still a good watch.
Psychologist Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant study paranormal activity named Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) , which leads them to investigate and unlock a world-renowned psychic who has resurfaced years after his toughest critic mysteriously passed away.
Good performance from Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Margaret Matheson as a world's foremost investigators of paranormal phenomena and her partner, Tom Buckley well played by Cillian Murphy .
The skeptical psychologist Dr. Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant, the physician Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy), are specialists in disclosing fraudulent paranormal phenomena.
When the famous psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) reappears to his public after many years of absence, Tom becomes obsessed to investigate whether Silver is a fraud or not."Red Lights" could have been a good movie with an intriguing premise.
With Robert De Niro playing dark and Cillian Murphy taking lead duties with Sigourney Weaver and Toby Jones in prominent supporting roles, even the presence of sometimes-I'm-compelling, sometimes-I-ham-it-up Joely Richardson (alas, in the latter incarnation this time) is not a real problem.
Although it gives away more than I'd like, the trailer does at least intend to tease, to entice the viewer to hand over cash to enter the world of the psychic phenomena and it did the job admirably: I came, I saw, I, hmmm, departed slightly disappointed.I really wanted Red Lights to work and often it does, it's just that it doesn't work completely and for its entirety.
STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningMargeret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) is a woman who, along with her assistant Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) sets out to dis-prove those who claim to possess paranormal powers or psychic abilities.
However, she is shaken up by the re-arrival on the scene of blind clairvoyant Simon Siler (Robert De Niro.) Unshaken, her and Tom resolve to disprove him like all the others- but Silver may be working more powers than they know.The greatest testament to greatness is, after many years, still being amazed by something brilliant and recalling the amazing power it held at the time and still does to this day.
Just inept in all respects.The unveiling of the star psychic, the troublesome "scientific" investigation they put him through, the inclusion of so many ridiculous and lame expositions (she the wise one informs the scientist that the reflection in his glasses was being used to deceive), and the ending is so utterly annoying, that it probably won't matter because by then the film has lost all credibility and reveals itself to be a sham.The existence and the study of the paranormal is virtually vacant in the mainstream media and academia, and making the subject legitimate and worthy of serious investigation is not helped when even a fictional Hollywood story can't make the intriguing case that "something is going on here", there is very little hope that it ever will.
Red Lights is about a team of professional sceptics, aka Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver, who go around 'debunking' supposed psychic and supernatural occurrences (think Sculley from the X-files, but without the oversize flashlight and shoulderpads).They seem to be making a good living off picking holes in séances and mediums when along comes our friend Robert DeNiro, who appears to be the 'real deal.' Cue a battle played out in the media as they do their best to try and disprove his act.Red Lights is certainly not the best film in the world, but it's different.
Let me start this review by saying I went into this movie thinking it might be pretty good, I was excited to see Cillian Murphy because I love the man, but coming out of this film I was in complete shock at how good it was.The thing that makes this thriller so great, is that unlike most of the movies made under the genera, the first half doesn't suffer to make the final half that much more shocking/amazing.
I never thought I am about to watch such a spectacular film when I saw the low ratings it received.Seeing names such as Sigourney Weaver, Cillian Murphy and of course Robert De Niro made me reconsider and watch it anyways.The story is beautiful and the acting is just marvelous.
The actors made a good effort to keep up with the movie, but it's just horrible how all the introduction of the main character Dr. Tom Buckley (Murphy) goes from an intelligent, clever and motivated assistant professor to the Dumb##$$ ludicrous, naive person of the finale, it's just not coherent,.
"What I'm saying is that after 30 years of investigating all kinds of phenomena with the right controls in place I have yet to witness a single miracle." Paranormal researchers Dr. Margaret Matheson (Weaver) and Tom Buckley (Murphy) are the best at what they do.
RED Lights - the second English movie by Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes, the first being Buried - is a horror flick about two paranormal investigators who bust fake mind readers and psychics.
The start of the movie is identical to that in British movie The Awakening (2012).Dr Margaret Matheson (the ever able Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant, physicist Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy of Inception and Dark Knight Rises), are called in to probe into irregular sounds in a house.
This sets up the movie's finale: can there be a real psychic?Meanwhile, comely student Sally (Elizabeth Olsen) catches the eye of Tom.Then the biggest psychic entertainer in the world, grey haired Simon Silver (Robert De Niro without breaking a sweat), makes a return after 30 years.
I think this is a wonderful film with some outstanding acting from several people ( not just Cillian, but Toby Jones, Sigourney Weaver, and Robert De Nero - even Joely Richardson has a big impact on the way the film feels; though a smaller part in the film - her level of sinister is great ).Some of the directing was a bit odd - several corridor scenes added to the 'weird/disturbing' theme but seemed disjointed and a little out of place.The ending was brilliant!A thoroughly enjoyable film.
There are very subtle references to THE OMEN and other horror films but nothing overt; no huge gross outs or even climactic physical battles.(though there is a brutal bathroom battle worthy of the new James Bond movies) The cast is terrific:Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy (for once in a good guy role!) are debunker's of paranormal phenomenon.
Red Lights opens a new door, bringing an intelligent plot which is not connected with horror movies.Rodrigo Cortés has created a piece of art and Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro and Cillian Murphy have helped a lot.
Right at the beginning we see them take down a séance in a reputedly haunted house and then later discuss some of the tricks of the trade to their students.When a once famous blind mentalist and psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) comes out from a three decade self imposed exile, Margaret and Tom are determined to expose him as a fraud.The film starts off promisingly enough, great acting from Weaver which makes you wonder why Murphy is first billed but then this becomes clear later on.
The storyline was very good and it kept my interest throughout, I really wanted to know what happened to both Cillian Murphy's character (Dr. Buckley) and Robert Di Niro's character (Silver).Sigourney Weaver gives a a very good monologue about Silver, saying how dangerous he is and talking about her son.
Ah well, it seems they all get there eventually.Red Lights follows the story of psychologist Margaret Wilson (Weaver), along with her partner in paranormal crime, Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy), whom both travel the state seeking to expose those claiming to be factual based Psychics.Margaret, who has seen and done it all before, separates herself from any beliefs such as religion and particularly the ability to perform such dark magic.
It is just hard to care about this movie unfortunately.Sigourney Weaver, Cillian Murphy and the rest gave a performance; I just think they chose a bad movie to represent...Like most of these supernatural flicks they do tend to offer some nice twists, basically to change the mind of the audience last minute.
'Red Lights' is supposed to be a serious film about a pair of paranormal skeptics investigating a well-known psychic, but the sheer absurdity of the plot developments and ending make this movie impossible to take seriously.It starts off promisingly but becomes sillier and sillier as it goes along, ultimately descending into farce.
When physicist Tom Buckley and his boss Margaret Matheson (a university academic who engages in paranormal investigations) discover their department's funding is being funneled to the supernatural studies department, and not long after Simon Silver, a psychic who vanished 30 years prior, comes out of hiding to perform one last time.
Sigourney Weaver and Robert DeNiro, two Hollywood legends, team up in Red Lights, a thriller that questions the nature of supposed ''Paranormal Activity'' and asks the question, can people really have supernatural powers?
Anyway, the story focuses om two physicians (Weaver and Cilian Murphy) who spend their time exposing so-called psychics or magic healers as crooks, things are going well for them, until Simon Silver (DeNiro), a world famous psychic, returns after 30 years as a recluse.
Nevertheless, Sigourney Weaver carries on her classic ''scientist with authority'' role from Avatar and DeNiro gives us his best performance in decades (not very hard to be honest), and despite a clumsy script, this is a good film for 100 minutes, but the final 10 minutes are horrendous and ruins it all.
Professor Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and he assistant Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) have a very unique and interesting job.
To be honest, this is one of those films I watched for the cast, I wasn't super interested in the story and at times it was painfully slow, but Red Lights has some downright creepy moments, and the ending will absolutely blow your mind.
Just a shame that Sigourney Weaver didn't have more screen time in the movie than she was given."Red Lights" does raise some interesting views and questions about phenomena that we can't explain.
And it was as shame too, because this movie really had potential."Red Lights" is well-worth watching, if not for anything else then for the performances by De Niro, Weaver and Murphy..
Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) is a psychologist who works as an investigator of paranormal phenomena with her partner Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy).
But Tom is determined to expose Silver and when an unfortunate accident occurs just past the half way mark, Tom goes into full unwavering mode.Directed by Rodrigo Cortés (Buried), Red Lights has a lot of real interesting pieces at work here - especially in the first half of the film.
The film therefore gets its name from the clues that these performers leave in their defrauding – clues that Margaret likes to call 'red lights'.Unfortunately, the biggest plot turn just over half way through the film takes things in a direction we found less interesting.
Although Robert DeNiro actually looks as if he is interested in a role for the first time in years, the dealings and relationships between Simon and Tom were far less engrossing than the travelling work detail of the Margaret and Tom pairing.There is another plot twist at the conclusion of the film that will either be exhilarating or wonky depending on how your positioned yourself prior to the reveal.
Red Lights sucks the viewer in as Margaret Matheson played wonderfully emotional by Sigourney Weaver and as Cillian Murphy as Tom Buckley go about disproving the paranormal in a number of locations during the captivating opening.There are some poignant moments littered throughout most revolving around a subplot with Matheson's son, and Buckley's and Matheson's characters arcs.
Some of Cortés' plot points come as no surprise and although realism seems to go out of the window tonally in the latter half e.g no one assisting or stopping the bludgeoned Buckley, there is a nice twist at the end despite leaving a few loose ends.Eugenio Mira's caricature of De Niro as a young Simon Silver aside the acting is top rate featuring the likes of Toby Jones, Elizabeth Olsen and UK TV's Craig Roberts.
This also explains why the likes of Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro and Cillian Murphy got themselves involved with this movie.
When I first started watching this I thought, "Robert DeNiro and Sigourney Weaver in a horror film?" I don't like horror and was shocked that such fine actors would do one.But "Red Lights" isn't a horror film despite some horror elements.
Psychologist Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant (Cillian Murphy) study paranormal activity, which leads them to investigate a world-renowned psychic (Robert DeNiro) who has resurfaced years after his toughest critic mysteriously passed away.I really enjoyed the first half of this film, with the crew debunking psychics and trying to find their methods.
Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her protégé Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) are two scientists who have made their work out of debunking people who call themselves paranormally gifted.
It is an ending so out of left field that it sours the experience of the entire film.Red Lights is not necessarily bad, the first half is decent with great suspense and interesting characters, but it completely fails when the director tries much to hard to shock its audience with absurd plot twists and an ending that essentially mocks the entire story itself.
I am sure he will achieve a lot in future ventures.The plot of this film is about a duo of paranormal investigators Margaret Matheson(Sigourney Weaver) & Tom Buckley(Cillian Murphy).
'Red Lights' is an odd film; it is about paranormal fraud and the exploitation of the vulnerable.The script overall is good but unfortunately the ending spoils it all; the plot takes its time but it is very interesting, clever and well-written.
The team of Dr. Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) and Dr. Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) investigate Psychics and find that tricks (Red Lights) are employed and these Psychics are shown to be fake.
The story is about a couple of University Paranormal skeptics, Margaret Matheson and Tom Buckley (Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy)who teach a class on the "fake" phenomenon of so-called psychics and the tricks they use.
Mixture of normal and paranormal, mystery and reality, life and death are clearly present and visible, but the depiction pace is uneven at times, tensions fade and you realize that you are just following good performances: Cillian Murphy as Tom Buckley, Robert De Niro as Simon Silver and Sigourney Weaver as Margaret Matheson, above all.
It's like watching MythBusters with a supernatural twist.Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) are two professional paranormal skeptics dedicated to expose fraudsters who prey on the superstitions of unsuspecting clients.