Girls of Geek Movie Review: "Red Lights"

​Written by Scotty

Growing up I was a little bit obsessed with illusions. I loved watching people perform magic tricks and wanted to learn how to become a magician myself. Come to find out that several of the tricks are very easy to do and there are all kinds of cheats that people can use to captivate audiences. Next on the list were psychics, since it is hard for me to believe that anyone could know more about my life than I, it was fun to watch them try and plan out my future for me and with some of the vague suggestions that they gave me, well of course some of them would come true. I will never doubt someone that has the ability to entertain, much less says that they can speak to the dead or see into the future, it is a gift that should be shared with the world. I would just rather get some specifics, not the generic telling’s that I have received in the past.

Margaret Matheson and Tom Buckley have teamed up to become the best psychic debunking team in the nation. Traveling to haunted homes and watching as the paranormal takes place in front of their very eyes, they are able to put an end to the hauntings, but not with special powers, with their science. The science of making a haunting is very simple, a pound on a wall at a special time, or levitating a table with your foot, it has all been well documented by the two and they are looking to make a bigger name for their studies. Teaching at the university, psychologist Margaret Matheson has a classroom full of students that do nothing but admire her teachings. Not believing in anything that psychics can bring to the table, she has little belief in anything overall, especially the afterlife.

After shutting down all of the city's psychic shows, Tom and Margaret are ready to move on to more paying gigs around town, but when the news of renowned psychic Simon Silver hits the presses, Tom wants nothing more than to prove that the old man is a fraud. Being begged by Margaret to not pursue what he is about to do, she comes clean about her meeting with Silver back in the day and how afraid she is of the blind man. With her son slowly fading away in the hospital for over twenty years, Margaret knows that there is something special about this man, but is not willing to take the extra step to prove what powers he actually has. Tom is determined to prove that Silver is a fake and wants to do so after his mentor was skewered on national television without the blind psychic even in the room.

Going to his normal box in the theater, Tom works on getting everything set up, but when he flicks the power switch, all hell breaks loose. As all of the theater's electronics blow up, Tom now has all the more reason to prove that Silver is a fake since there is no normal power surge that could have caused the catastrophe to happen. But Tom will have to move alone as Margaret’s sickness gets the better of her and she passes away.  Wanting any help he can get, the university's most tenured professor, Paul Shackleton will have the honor of testing Silver to see what he can uncover about the psychic phenomenon and prove if it is real or not. Being able to gain entrance into the lab to view the tests, Tom will now get to see firsthand if Silver is for real or just fooling everyone that has crossed his path.

I don’t know where this movie has been hiding for the past couple of years, but I am sorry that I missed it until now. I love how the story played out, watching the debunkers take on the rest of the world that only want to believe that there is something more out there. I loved the debunking’s of the haunted houses the most, since they were so easy to dismiss for the two. I didn’t hit on it much, but the story between Margaret and her son that is living on life support has to be the saddest part of the movie altogether, but it was not that her son was still alive, but that she could not find the courage to pull the plug and let him go since she does not believe in anything past life. Tom had a great story and his desperation to prove that Silver is a fraud leads the movie pretty much from the get go. I liked the students and classroom scenes the best, as the students want to try and challenge their professors and always get shut down.  A good little movie that will make you challenge your beliefs more than once as you are able to see the world crumble in front of your very eyes.  Happy Viewing.

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