Red Lights (2012)
Directed by Rodrigo Cortés
Two investigators of paranormal hoaxes, the veteran Dr. Margaret Matheson and her young assistant, Tom Buckley, study the most varied metaphysical phenomena with the aim of proving their fraudulent origins. Simon Silver, a legendary blind psychic, reappears after an enigmatic absence of 30 years to become the greatest international challenge to both orthodox science and professional sceptics. Tom starts to develop an intense obsession with Silver, whose magnetism becomes stronger with each new manifestation of inexplicable events. As Tom gets closer to Silver, tension mounts, and his worldview is threatened to its core.
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What critics compared Red Lights to
There are echoes of "Scanners," "Unbreakable" and "The Prestige" as Margaret and Tom go about disproving phenomenon after phenomenon, from supposedly haunted houses to elaborate stage performances akin to those for which Simon was once renowned.
In this respect, I found myself comparing the approach of "Red Lights" to Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige."
Things wind up to a fevered pitch before a rewind, like "The Prestige," but without any rabbit coming out of the hat.
The film wraps up with a reveal along the lines of "The Usual Suspects" or "The Prestige" in which it turns out there was another story being secretly told in tandem all along.
In another direction entirely, I remember hearing Donald Sutherland explain, more than 20 years ago, how he set a new gold standard for character actors in the 1989 movie “Lock Up.” Sylvester Stallone wanted Sutherland to play the sadistic prison warden that his character would battle against, but the esteemed Canadian thought the picture sounded dreadful and didn’t want to do it.