55 pages • 1 hour read
Lights Out
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Background
Genre Context: Dark Romance
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content.
Dark romance is a genre that subverts the common themes and tropes of the broader romance genre. Romance generally involves extensive courting and flirtation, often with external factors that challenge the main characters’ resolve in their developing relationship. Such romances usually end with marriage or some form of commitment, and they may or may not have explicit sexual content. Within the romance genre are many works considered “smut,” or sexually explicit, which present a narrative punctuated by explicit sex scenes. Dark romance is a deviation from this latter subgenre, in which the focus of the sexually explicit scenes is on dubious consent, violence, bondage play, or other rough sex acts. Dark romance often also includes darker themes of crime, sexual assault, murder, or paranormal activity.
Lights Out fits neatly into the dark romance genre, but it also challenges long-held tropes of dark romance. For example, in works like Haunting Adeline by H. D. Carlton or Hooked by Emily McIntire, the female lead is often ineffectual or physically weak. Additionally, part of the sexual activity in the novels relies on dubious consent, situations in which one character—usually the woman—is unsure or conflicted about whether or not they consent to sex. Lights Out plays with this trope, presenting Aly as a woman who knows she wants to have sex with Josh. This continues even when their sex acts mimic sexual assault, which Aly calls “con-dub-con,” or consensual dubious consent. Likewise, female leads in dark romance often only have abstract or undefined power in their relationships, such as a metaphysical “control” over the male lead, whereas Aly and Josh effectively share power and control in their relationship. These challenges to the genre do not prevent Lights Out from being a dark romance, but they add a unique layer to Allen’s participation in the broader genres of romance and dark romance.
Cultural Context: TikTok Trends and Groups
TikTok is a social media site that functions through posted videos of varying lengths. People who post on TikTok often develop a niche, such as funny skits, helpful instructions, crafting, or dancing. Within TikTok, there are groups and subgroups that enjoy and create specific content, such as “MovieTok,” which focuses on movies, or “BookTok,” which discusses books. These groups often break into smaller groups, such as “HorrorTok,” which falls under both BookTok and MovieTok, depending on the creator. Many subgroups on TikTok have incredibly niche focal points, and the group most relevant to Lights Out is “MaskTok,” which is a group in which creators post content in masks. This content could be innocuous, such as delivering a monologue while wearing a mask, but it could also lean into the trend of “thirst traps,” which are videos designed to arouse and attract the viewer.
Lights Out discusses the complexities of parasocial relationships, or one-sided connections with figures in media, developed through social media, such as Aly’s obsession with Josh. Josh posts thirst trap videos aimed at MaskTok viewers, often involving himself simulating sexual acts offscreen. Aly, like many other MaskTok viewers, develops a parasocial relationship with Josh, seeing him as an ideal man and fantasizing about having sex with him in dubious consent scenarios. These interactions highlight how social media and social media subgroups can influence people’s perception of each other and creators. Creators are not presenting themselves to their audience, and Josh acknowledges how his performances as the Faceless Man are essentially a persona that he created to express a specific part of his personality. The viewers who feel an attraction to this persona are in love with the fantasy of Josh, not Josh himself. This pattern, though, reflects the real-life issue of social media influencers, who often find themselves harassed or stalked by viewers.
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