Red Lights (2012 film)
Red Lights is a 2012 psychological supernatural thriller film written, directed, produced and edited by Rodrigo Cortés and starring Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro, Toby Jones, Joely Richardson, and Elizabeth Olsen. The plot focuses on a physicist (Murphy) and a university psychology professor (Weaver), both of whom specialise in debunking supernatural phenomena, and their attempt at discrediting a renowned psychic (De Niro) whose greatest critic mysteriously died 30 years prior. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2012, and received a limited release in the United States on 13 July 2012. Plot 
University professor and psychologist Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy), a physicist, investigates claims of paranormal phenomena. They observe a seance and later debunk the tricks used by the pretend psychic. At the same time, famous blind psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) announces he will begin performing again. Silver spent decades away from the limelight after his most vocal skeptical critic died suddenly while confronting Silver at one of his performances. The news garners lots of media attention and Silver begins making television appearances to promote his shows. Buckley suggests that he and Matheson, along with fellow skeptic and eager student Sally Owen (Elizabeth Olsen) go after Silver, but Matheson is against the idea. Instead, they monitor the performance of a "faith healer" and former student of Silver's and, by using sophisticated surveillance equipment, are able to expose him as a fraud who uses a earpiece and is fed information from assistants elsewhere in the theater. Buckley suggests they go after Silver next but Matheson again rebuffs him, admitting that years prior she had tried to expose Silver only to be left shaken when Silver seemed to contact her comatose son. Frustrated, Buckley attempts to monitor Silver's show on his own the with the same equipment as before, but his attempt is immediately noticed by Silver and the equipment mysteriously breaks down. Buckley returns to Matheson only to find her collapsed on the floor. She dies shortly after from a chronic vascular condition. Following Matheson's death, Buckley becomes increasingly obsessed with investigating Silver, but his efforts are interrupted by a series of seemingly inexplicable events. Electronic devices explode, dead birds appear, and Buckley's laboratory is vandalized. As the media frenzy continues, Silver agrees to participate in an investigation proposed by an academic from the same university that employed Matheson even though she is shown earlier pointing out flaws in their testing methods. Buckley joins the observation team but is not allowed to participate in the tests and can only review recorded footage with his assistants. Though most tests yield inconclusive results, one using two isolation booths to attempt to record telepathy shows Silver succeeding at a rate far beyond random chance. The results of the testing seem to confirm Silver has genuine psychic powers and are set to be published just prior to his final show. An increasingly aggitated Buckley attends the show while his assistants continue to review the footage of Silver's testing. After being spotted in the crowd, Buckley is attacked by one of Silver's assistants while in the bathroom. At the same time, Owen discovers Silver and the person in the other isolation booth were wearing perfectly synchronized watches and using a pattern based on the time to cheat the telepathy test. Additionally, she determines that Silver is faking his blindness as he never touches his watch to check the time. Bloodied and pushed to his limit, Buckley storms the auditorium to confront Silver. As the two argue more electrical disturbances occur and the stage begins to shake, but Silver is confused by the occurrences and it is revealed Buckley is and always has been the one causing them. Buckley reveals he actually does possess paranormal abilities as has been working as a debunker in hopes of finding someone else like him or another explanation. An assistant tries to pull Silver off stage but he is too dumbfounded and just keeps yelling at Buckley. Buckley in turn tosses a coin at Silver's face, which he instinctively catches, revealing to the audience that he can see. Buckley leaves, and through narration expresses regret for not telling Matheson the truth about his abilities while she was alive, as it could have had comforted her about her son's condition knowing "there is more." Hoping they can be together again in death, he goes to the hospital and turns off the life-support machine that is keeping Matheson's son alive. He leaves and admits to himself that he can't deny what he is forever. Cast 
 Cillian Murphy as Thomas "Tom" Buckley
 Sigourney Weaver as Margaret Matheson
 Robert De Niro as Simon Silver
 Joely Richardson as Monica Handsen
 Elizabeth Olsen as Sally Owen
 Craig Roberts as Ben
 Toby Jones as Dr Paul Shackleton
 Burn Gorman as Benedict Cosell
 Garrick Hagon as Howard McColm 
 Leonardo Sbaraglia as Leonardo "Leo" Palladino
 Lynn Blades as Dana
 Jeany Spark as Traci Northrop
 Julius Cotter as Dr. Jennings

Production

Development 
Cortés spent a year and a half researching and writing the screenplay, studying both sides of the psychic powers issue offered by skeptics and believers. He came to the conclusion that some on each side exclude evidence that does not support their position. He further stated that he does not intend Red Lights to represent his own position on the subject, as it is just an entertainment movie; however, he personally does not believe in the supernatural (ghosts, demons, etc.) because, in his view, nothing can exceed natural laws, but the paranormal (psychic powers, etc. ), which he differentiates from the supernatural, could be phenomena in some cases for which science has yet to find an explanation. He scripted the character of skeptical psychologist Margaret Matheson specifically with actress Sigourney Weaver in mind for the role, but with no advance commitment from her, though to his relief, she did sign on to the project after reading the script. Robert De Niro researched and met with psychics for his role and developed the cautious belief that there is something to the phenomenon based on allegedly psychically-obtained information they were able to tell him that he insists only he knew: "There's no way they could have known certain things and they said them, so in that sense, I have no answer than to say that I have to believe that there's something there that they pick up psychically. I don't know what it is". Filming 
Filming occurred in Spain and Canada, with ten of the filming locations based in Barcelona, Spain; a week of filming was undertaken at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, Canada and significant shots were taken on James Street North in nearby Hamilton, Canada. The filming process for Red Lights commenced in February 2011 and concluded in April 2011. Release

Critical reception 

Red Lights received mainly negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 30% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 92 reviews, with an average rating of 4.85/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Wasting the talents of an impressive cast on a predictable mystery, Red Lights lacks the clairvoyance to know what audiences want." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". References

External links 
 
 
 
 How true to life are the psychics and psychologists in Red Lights? The Guardian, June 15, 2012. A review of the film by real-life parapsychologist Chris French

2012 films
2012 psychological thriller films
2010s mystery drama films
2010s mystery thriller films
2010s psychological drama films
2010s supernatural thriller films
American mystery drama films
American mystery thriller films
American psychological drama films
American psychological thriller films
American supernatural thriller films
English-language Spanish films
Films directed by Rodrigo Cortés
Films shot in Barcelona
Films shot in Toronto
Paranormal films
Spanish mystery drama films
Spanish mystery thriller films
Spanish supernatural films
Nostromo Pictures films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
2010s Spanish films
Spanish psychological thriller films