A 2012 film that was “destined to be a cult classic” has just been added to Amazon Prime Video, and it features Robert De Niro as a psychic against debunkers Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver.
Red Lights is a psychological thriller about skeptics Dr. Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy), who specialize in exposing fraudulent paranormal claims.
They focus their efforts on Simon Silver (Robert De Niro), a renowned psychic who has reappeared after decades of silence, sparking Tom’s obsession with disproving Silver’s abilities.
The film explores the blurring lines between perception and reality, particularly in the context of paranormal claims.
The main plot happens when Tom becomes increasingly obsessed with disproving Silver’s claims, leading to a dangerous and mysterious investigation. Meanwhile, Margaret’s personal history with Silver makes her reluctant to get involved in the project.
The film was written, produced and directed by Rodrigo Cortés, who spent a year and a half researching and studying psychic powers, from both skeptics’ and believers’ points of view.
Robert De Niro also researched and met with psychics to develop his role, which led him to come to the conclusion that he believed in psychics to some extent.
“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”, he told Empire in 2012. “I don’t know what it is”.
Upon its release, Red Lights received mixed negative criticism that generally described it as a “predictable mystery”. The specialised media’s consensus gave it a 30% score on film reviewing platform Rotten Tomatoes.
On the other hand, many others praised it for being thrilling in unconventional ways, “constantly playful and often tongue-in-cheek as it works through the hokey conventions of the genre”.
Many other specialists applaud Red Lights’ impressive cast, positive narrative surprises, fun jumpscares and suspense sequences.
Red Lights (2012) is now available for streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video.