A Decade Later, Lights Out 2 Flickers Back to Life

It’s not exactly common for a low-budget horror movie to blow up at the box office and then disappear into the Hollywood sequel void—but that’s exactly what happened with Lights Out. The original movie dropped back in 2016, made close to $150 million on a budget that, let’s be honest, probably wouldn’t cover the catering on a Marvel shoot. Everyone figured the sequel would be a no-brainer. And yet, here we are. Almost a decade later, and Lights Out 2 is only just now getting dusted off.

Lights Out 2—Back From the Dead (Maybe)

After years of nothing, New Line Cinema is finally kicking the tires and seeing if there’s still gas in the tank. The big update: they’ve brought in a fresh face, Connor Osborn McIntyre, to write a new script for the sequel. If you’re drawing a blank on the name, you’re not alone, but industry folks are betting big on him.

Who’s This McIntyre Guy?

Okay, here’s the rundown: McIntyre wrote Animals, Ben Affleck’s upcoming thriller, which also stars Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, and Kerry Washington. Not too shabby for a writing credit. He also got an original script called American Midnight listed on last year’s Black List (that’s basically the Oscars for best scripts that haven’t gotten made). Netflix bought that one, with Vertigo Entertainment and Spooky Pictures involved. He’s sold other scripts as well, like Copenhagen to Makeready and Fifth Season. Point is, he’s not a household name (yet), but he is absolutely the kind of guy Hollywood likes to gamble on.

Quick Refresher: What Was Lights Out About?

If your memory’s hazy, here’s a quick recap: the first film followed Rebecca (Teresa Palmer), who thought she was done with the creepy stuff that haunted her as a kid. That is, until her younger brother Martin started dealing with the exact same supernatural weirdness—namely, a terrifying entity that came for them whenever the lights went off. It’s all tied to their mother, Sophie, and gets increasingly nasty as Rebecca digs into what’s really going on.

The cast also included Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia, Billy Burke, Maria Bello, and Alicia Vela-Bailey. And the whole thing was basically one long PSA for paying your electric bill.

So Why Did the Sequel Fall Into a Black Hole?

Here’s where things get a little Hollywood. David F. Sandberg, who directed the first one, was going to return for round two. Eric Heisserer, who wrote the first script, even finished a draft for the sequel years ago. At one point, Chris Borrelli also took a swing at the script.

Sandberg summed up the situation a while back, saying:

'In that draft, Martin was still young, and he’s not young anymore. He’s like a man now, you know. No, but she was sort of attacking a new family, but then this cast got involved to sort of help out with that. Because, I mean, you kind of have to do that. Because the fun thing with a horror movie is the discovery when the haunting starts, and you don’t know what’s going on. So, if she just comes back to this cast, like, "Well, yeah, we know who Diana is. We’ve dealt with her before." So if you have a different family at first, then they can go through all that, but then you can have this cast come in and sort of, you know, be the experts to help defeat.'

So, in plain English: the original cast can’t really be surprised by ghosts anymore, but audiences love that ‘what the hell is happening’ energy. The plan was to introduce a new family being tormented, who’d get help from the seasoned survivors. Clever, but apparently not enough to get things rolling back then.

The Team This Time Around

• Connor Osborn McIntyre: Writing the script (plot under wraps)
• David F. Sandberg, Eric Heisserer: Returning as producers (no word yet on directing)
• Lawrence Grey, Ben Everard, Lotta Losten, Atomic Monster (James Wan’s company): Producing as well

Will We Actually Get Lights Out 2 This Time?

No details yet on the plot or casting—and honestly, given the tomb-like silence over these past ten years, I’ll believe this is real when cameras start rolling. Still, with McIntyre now scripting and the original creative team producing, the odds just improved dramatically for a sequel finally materializing.

So, does another round of demon-in-the-dark action sound appealing, or has the long wait burned you out? Let me know below.