Neon Lights is an inventively twisted psychological thriller that’s more like a nightmare glimpse inside a disordered mind.
Clay (Dana Abraham) is a tech giant and visionary, but he is starting to lose it. There is even a threat to remove him as CEO from his own company. A talk show interview devolves quickly when he is put on the spot about his own instability and the future of his software business.
A kindly psychiatrist (Brenna Coates) tries to help Clay push through his guilt and fear (from some mysterious past trauma).
Clay invites his estranged family to his country mansion for the weekend. These are people he hasn’t spoken to, or seen, in over 10 years, so it gets off to a thorny start. His brother Benny (Rene Escobar Jr.) is openly dismissive and hostile to him. Benny’s wife Clarissa (Brit MacRae) keeps having to smooth things over, as we slowly realize all three brothers have a thing for her. Their aloof, bookish, daughter Blair (Erika Swayze) looks on warily.
The other brother James (Stephen Tracey) has only showed up to try to get Clay to invest in his failed nightclub, and is even more confrontational and obnoxious.
Clay shows them to their rooms and pointedly insists that they be on time for dinner. “My house my rules.” But he is constantly belittled by the apparition of his abusive father (Kim Coates) and things soon spiral bloodily out-of-control.
Actor Dana Abraham, who also worked on the script with director Rouzbeh Heydari, creates a wonderfully odd, unstable lead. Bearded, with glasses and a repeated choked giggle when he talks, he is a disturbing enigma. But as the movie finally begins to come into focus, we come to understand what we are seeing. “Round and round you go,” Clay’s father repeats, “Into the shadows Clay must go.”
And so will audiences willing to go down the rabbit hole with this strange little film.
Neon Lights open July 12 (VOD & Digital).
