The words "red lights" are commonly used by the skeptics who study paranormal phenomena. It refers to the sign of swindlers that feathered themselves as psychics. In other words, it is the critical clue that distinguishes between a paranormal phenomenon and a fraud. Obviously, just like the title mentions, the movie Red Lights is about two experts finding the red lights, believing the paranormal phenomena to be wrong. In the movie, the main character, Buckley tells his assistant the secret to the trick is making the audience focus on other peripheral things. You will realize how this movie also tricks you to look at other things, rather than the essence of the story.

 

Red Lights is different from other movies that dealt with the issue of paranormal phenomena. Rather than focusing on the entertaining and surprising aspects of supernatural incidents, it is original in that it is more focused on disclosing them. The two main characters, Tom Buckley, starring Cillian Murphy, and Margaret Matheson, starring Sigourney Weaver, investigate paranormal scenes and prove the flaws scientifically.

 

Their long and successful investigations continue until they meet a famous psychic, Simon Silver, starring Robert De Niro. Whether it is a pure accident or coincidence, Margaret dies similarly to the other skeptic of Silver, making the situation more mysterious. After her death, Buckley gets more obsessed with figuring out the flaws of Silver. The conclusion to the contradiction of whether Silver or Buckley is right comes up at the very last minute of the movie. Only audiences who looked closely to the very specific scenes and the ending will be satisfied by the unexpected yet tremendously logical plot of this movie.

As the movie is shown from the perspective of the inspectors, the enjoyment of watching this movie comes from figuring out the secret to the paranormal phenomena. It is quite surprising how the scenes from the movie were based on a real situation. Some may have heard of James Randi or the Amazing Randi, the magician, but also famous for being the psychic-hunter. As an opponent of pseudoscience, he challenges many psychics and proves them to be wrong. The famous incidents of Randi revealing the trick of psychics are Uri Geller and Peter Popoff. These incidents became the motifs and are seen from the scenes throughout the movie.

 

The part where Buckley and Margaret examine the psychic who declares he can cure every illness is similar to Peter Popoff’s case. Buckley and Margaret detect the sound where the assistants help the psychic by indicating whom to choose and what to say. Peter Popoff was found to be guilty in the same way as he sold his so-called-natural-power to cure patience at a high price. Randi testified this to be wrong and explained that he believes his job is to help the innocence people to not get tricked by the ones who make profit from doing it. In some ways, Buckley represents Randi.

Another interesting factor that will add more understanding to this movie is to think about why the two main characters are so into finding the flaws of the psychics. While Margaret is the skeptic who is crazy about explaining the paranormal phenomena in scientific manner, she is just like one of us who wishes there were such thing as a miracle. A more specific reason is that she wants her son to wake up from a coma. Even when her beliefs are sure that there is no such thing as supernatural power, the other side of her still lingers on the mere hope of miracle. Buckley has a similar reason for finding the blind point of being reasonable and scientific, which is one of the most surprising parts of the movie.

 

After watching Red Lights, you may become more confused as to what is right or wrong or what to believe. However, recalling our past history, there were so many theories that were not accepted during that time because they conflicted with the norm of the days. But in the later future everything changed and society accepted the new facts, such as the Copernicus principal and the huge paradigm change because of it. Maybe what we have believed as truth in our time could be wrong in the later future; no one really knows. Also, this unrevealing fact about paranormal powers may be real. Until the future where these powers can be explained, no one will ever know the ultimate truth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Film information

Release date: 2012. 1. 20

Running time: 113 min.

Director: Rodrigo Cortes

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro, Elizabeth Olsen