Movie Review: When the Lights Went Out (2012)

When the Lights Went Out is a film about a family in Yorkshire being attacked by poltergeists. It's set in 1974 and is brilliantly faithful to the era. If I hadn't known it was released in 2012, I would have believed it was straight out of the Seventies. (Aside, perhaps, from the film quality, which is better than was available at that time.)

This one's based (loosely) a on true story. (Read about it here.)


In When the Lights Went Out, a family moves into their new home. The daughter, Sally, is less than thrilled - even more so when the house's poltergeist targets her. Clairvoyants and priests are called in but both fail to save the day.

The way that Sally's parents slap her around in this really flipped my triggers. Coming from the childhood I did, seeing that kind of casual abuse made me instantly hate her parents and not give a damn about what happened to them. If anything, it kind of put me on the side of the poltergeist.

Poltergeists. Poor Sally. She has two ghosties working on her: one, the ghost of a young girl, trying to protect her and another, a nasty monk's ghost, trying to keep on doing the nasty stuff he did to girls before he died.

When the Lights Went Out isn't a great title. It's supposed to be set during a nationwide blackout but, to be honest, the movie doesn't touch on that at all - not that it has any real bearing on the movie itself. Just something that bugged me.

Although many of the characters were unlikable and the title is pointless, there were some great jumps in When the Lights Went Out. I won't give too many away but I will tell you that I don't think I'll ever be able to play Buckaroo again. *shudder* The special effects were done well and the CGI was effective. You can't ask much more from a horror film than that.