When the Lights Went Out

Loosely based on the Black Monk of Pontefract, a ghost who afflicted the county of Yorkshire in northern England in the 1960s and 1970s, When the Lights Went Out tells the story of the Maynard family. Father Len, mother Jenny and daughter Sally move into their dream house, but soon come across an uninvited ‘presence’. The twist comes when the invisible housemate makes friends with 12-year-old Sally.
The film reveals a meticulously designed 1970s art direction that also guarantees the necessary humour, for instance in the discussions between man and wife about the colour in the kitchen must be: is it avocado or just plain green? The film mixes the tight and effectively included ghost elements (forms suddenly popping up, flickering lamps, furniture moving on its own) with a northern sobriety that is exceptional for the genre. In this way, an unwilling priest is convinced in an unusual manner to cooperate by performing an exorcism.