MovieChat Forums > Darkness Falls (2003) Discussion > Why do flashlights break so easily in ho...

Why do flashlights break so easily in horror movies?

posted 15 years ago by jeffyoung1
8 replies | jump to latest

Okay, you folks may laugh at this, but read on and you know it's true.

How many times in horror movies have I seen perfectly serviceable flashlights suddenly malfunction? Or worse, everytime a movie character drops his or her flashlight it breaks.

I own a bunch of flashlights and I've dropped flashlights many times and haven't broken any. But then again, I didn't have a crazed slasher, or monster, or ghost chasing after me.

I just watched a horror movie where a character walks into a darkened highway road tunnel. He drops his flashlight and the lens and bulb breaks, leaving him using his lighter for illumination. I think by now flashlight manufacturers have learned not to use fragile, easily breakable lenses in flashlights. Your typical flashlight is designed to survive a fall from the human body onto a hard surface. Some flashlights are designed to be even more rugged than that. Nonetheless, this is after all, HOLLYWOOD. How else can you heighten the suspense and terror if you can't find some practical means to deprive a movie character of his or her flashlight, thus leaving them more vulnerable to the stalking psycho slasher killer, the monster, or the ghost.

In DARKNESS FALLS, the same thing happens. Perfectly good flashlights suddenly go dark and characters are banging their flashlights trying to get the light back on. Because of all the fragility of flashlights in all the horror movies I've seen, it's left me paranoid about flashlights. I own multiple flashlights so that no mysterious malfunction or unexpected breakage leaves me without emergency illumination.

[–] dearminiben 15 years ago

Typical horror movie cliche.

[–] mojo2004 14 years ago

Isn't this the same as everyone's cell phone not working when they should be? Or everyone at the same time has conveniently left it somewhere,lost it or forget to charge it.

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[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] TheFatDruidofNacyl 14 years ago

Probably because of the same logic where there is a serial killer or monster killing people, two teenagers will still decide to have sex and get killed.

Or when they know something bad is happening but they decide they should go investigate the noise, or a teenage girl will stand in one place and just keep screaming until the bad guy gets her instead of running away or finding a weapon to fight back. How about people that are running from someone bad and decide to stop and look back to see how close they are.

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[–] Roxy08005 14 years ago

I agree i am like wow they must have gotten those flashlights from the dollar surplus bin. I also wonder why people's cars always "break down" or they can clearly see there gas tanks are low and pass so many (Non creepy) gas stations but avoid filling up the tank only to run out of gas while fleeing from a manic or some evil entity.

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[–] jeffyoung1 13 years ago

Even flashlights from the dollar surplus bin are more rugged than the 'Hollywood flashlight' that breaks so easily. However I should admit there is some historical accuracy. Decades ago, flashlights used tempered glass lenses instead of polycarbonate today. It was indeed possible to break the lens of an old-fashioned flashlight by dropping it hard or striking it too hard on a hard surface. (I managed to use the word, hard, three times in one sentence, LOL.)

Often you'll see the flashlight in the actor's hand start to flicker for no reason - except to imply failing batteries - and then go out completely. The actor furiously bangs the flashlight in his or her hand to no avail.

I write this post because my 'thing' about owning a whole bunch of flashlights paid off this past week. The electrical power went out in my place of employment as night was falling. Soon the whole place was dark. I had several flashlights and loaned out several to key employees which was invaluable. There were certain parts of the business that were near pitch black and the flashlights were useful.

[–] nomad-46 13 years ago

I actually have lots of flashlights, too, but not because I'm afraid of them breaking. Rather, I have lots of flashlights because for awhile, I'd see one in the store or in a catalog that looked neat and say, "Oh, that looks neat!" and buy it. Mostly stuff like LED flashlights with lots of LEDs and/or ones that had some neat feature like you could stand it up on it's end and pivot the light where you wanted. After awhile I just stopped buying them because, "Gee, I've already got too many flashlights!" LOL

But yeah, they definitely come in handy during night-time power outages.

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[–] dogsoldier_spoon-1 12 years ago

You know, I have owned a whole bunch of pretty bad flashlights over the years. The batteries ran out quickly or in rare occasions some would just stop working forever, I've owned dozens. Finally got some good ones now though.