Overview
A solar flare causes a global blackout on New Year's Eve, turning a party into a nightmare.
Media
The Deep Dive
Why It's in the Vault
- A gloriously chaotic blend of disaster tropes and party-gone-wrong energy, proving that even the sun can’t outshine a B-movie’s commitment to absurdity.
- The solar flare premise is a fresh twist on the 'trapped with strangers' trope, delivering a neon-soaked, panic-fueled descent into madness that feels like *The Purge* meets *2012* with a budget of pocket change.
- The practical effects for the blackout’s aftermath—flickering lights, dying phones, and a suspiciously high number of 'emergency' glow sticks—are so janky they loop back around to genius.
- Features a scene where a character tries to 'hack' a smart fridge to call for help, which is either the most prescient satire of IoT culture or the dumbest thing ever committed to film—either way, it’s gold.
- The film’s third act devolves into a *Mad Max*-lite brawl over a single working car, complete with a villain who monologues about 'the new world order' while wearing a bedazzled fanny pack.
Trivia
- The entire movie was shot in a single Airbnb during a real blackout scare, which the director later called 'divine intervention' (the crew called it 'a health code violation').
- Lead actor Jake Rylan (who plays the 'heroic DJ') was a last-minute replacement after the original actor was arrested for public intoxication—his performance is 90% improvised slurred dialogue.
- The solar flare was achieved by pointing a flashlight at a disco ball and praying. The VFX team consisted of one intern who ‘knew Photoshop.’
- The film’s original title was *New Year’s Eve Massacre*, but the distributor changed it to *Blackout* to avoid confusion with the 2011 rom-com (as if anyone could confuse the two).
- A deleted scene reveals the party’s host was secretly a doomsday prepper, which explains why his basement was stocked with enough canned beans to survive the apocalypse (and also why the film’s climax involves a bean-fueled riot).
- The movie’s poster features a tagline that was accidentally left in the final cut as a subtitle: 'This movie was made in 18 days. You’ll notice.'
Fan Theories
- The solar flare wasn’t natural—it was a government experiment gone wrong, and the partygoers are actually test subjects in a secret bunker (the ‘basement’ is just a door to Level 4).
- The film is a lost *Twilight Zone* episode. The blackout is Rod Serling’s way of saying, 'What if the real monster was capitalism all along?' (The fanny pack villain is a stand-in for late-stage consumerism.)
- The DJ’s mixtape is cursed. Every time it plays, society collapses. This explains why the film’s soundtrack is inexplicably catchy yet also deeply unsettling.
- The working car in the climax is a Chekhov’s gun—it’s the same car from *Death Proof*, and the driver is Stuntman Mike’s long-lost cousin, here to finish what he started.
Disaster SchlockNeon NoirApocalypse PartySolar Flare CinemaTrapped-in-a-Mansion HorrorDIY CyberpunkFanny Pack ExploitationGlow Stick Giallo