AVAILABLE ON VOD! Every so often, a film sneaks up on me with a simple premise and a moral gut punch. Shane Aquino’s Blackout is that kind of sci-fi thriller — a story about ordinary people offered an extraordinary bargain in the dead of night.
Something is wrong in a small rural town. The lights go out, but this is not your typical blackout. It’s not just the power; the townsfolk wake up to find the sun is gone, replaced by permanent night. It gets stranger — every survivor finds themselves alone, cut off from the outside world.
From here, we follow two survivors. The first is a young girl, Suzanna (Riley Ryan). She is home alone while her parents are out for the night. The blackout hits while she is on the phone with her mother. It’s not too long before a mysterious figure is standing outside the window, staring in at Suzanna. The figure is the Usher (Brian Sienkiewicz), who tells Suzanna not to worry and invites her for a meal with what appears to be a senior woman with dementia. The Usher is not here to harm Suzanna but instead offers her the choice to end the blackout — at an incredibly high price.
Next is Weston Hall (Mike Ferguson), a local sheriff who loves techno music as a way to cope with his thankless job. The only thing he is looking forward to is dinner with his estranged daughter. The evening starts cordially but soon becomes combative. Then everything goes black. As Weston gets his bearings, he finds himself alone in the house, with another figure standing outside his window. It is a female Usher (Tiffany Downey). Like Suzanna, Weston is offered the same deal to end the blackout once and for all.
“The Usher is not here to harm Suzanna but instead offers her the choice to end the blackout — at an incredibly high price.”
The first thing you notice about Aquino’s Blackout is that it’s a super low-budget, ultra-DIY production. It looks cheap — cheap, cheap, cheap. But as we say in the indie game here at Film Threat, a good story covers a multitude of sins. At first, you’re engaged by how bad the production quality is. Once things start rolling, this film gets good, and you realize Aquino takes full advantage of his limitations. It’s a story Hollywood would never tell because it’s not polished (aka cinematic), and it’s not something an A-list actor would want to attach themselves to. What it is is a story that says something. It draws you in and asks one simple question: “What would you do?” This is what all sci-fi should do.
The opening moments set the tone perfectly. A little girl is home alone when the blackout hits, and then the “monster” appears. Instead of being a symbol of terror, it offers this young girl a very adult choice that plays on her fears of being alone, her love of her parents, and the idea of sacrifice. Weston, a burnt-out cop, is handed the exact same choice, and his answer is very different from hers. That contrast is where the film becomes more than a movie. It asks: when our lives are on the line, do we make the selfish choice? Do we sacrifice for the people we love? Or does the weight of that choice extend beyond us as individuals to all of humanity?
Yes, the film looks cheap, but I suspect that’s partly to throw you off guard, because the quality quietly climbs as the special effects kick in and it becomes a very strange techno music video. The acting is pretty decent across the board. The standout is Riley Ryan as the little girl. Kids are a mixed bag, and director Shane Aquino gets a fantastic performance from Ryan. Blackout is worth taking a chance on because there’s something here that runs far deeper than its narrative.
Blackout is available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, and Google Play.
"…asks one simple question: 'What would you do?'"
