When the Lights Went Out

I saw this at a preview screening tonight in London. Its a British supernatural haunted house film set in Yorkshire 1974 and is apparently based on a true story.

The 70s Britain backdrop is suitably done reflecting the country's financial struggles of its time and if you remember growing up in 70s Britain, there are some fond nostalgic touches to enjoy. The story, however is a typical haunted house affair. A working class family (mother, father and a thirteen year old daughter) moves into a new home in the suburbs. Of course the new home is haunted and aggressively so. The family becomes rather concerned about this little negative point....which unfortunately is the first of this film's many problems.

See, the family's reaction to the haunting is ridiculously flippant. They accept the haunting too easily, despite its obvious aggression. The family are mostly naive and unlikeable which doesn't help me root for them. The performance of the 13 year old is initially quite annoying in her mannerisms but she is deliberately playing a stroppy teenager who lacks self esteem and friends, and she portrays that well. She has just one school friend, who seems to be a much more accomplished little actress and was very charming. In fact, the film had more spark every time she was on the screen. The friendship drama with the children, their isolation and their struggles against bullies was actually far more interesting and captivating than the house haunting itself.

Which brings me to the films's biggest problem of all. If you have seen just a few supernatural films, then this wont likely scare you. Its not completely devoid of "boo" moments but there is absolutely nothing new here and its embarrassingly clichéd. Almost every attempted boo moment is lifted from classics such as Poltergeist, Sixth Sense, and Paranormal Activity but with inferior results and sometimes laughably ridiculous visuals that is too illogical even for a Loony Tunes cartoon. Perhaps the scares would be effective to complete virgins of supernatural films. Its possible that I may have seen too many supernatural films myself being a massive fan of the genre for these scare attempts to be effective on me but the scares here are still poorly executed and devoid of logic. I mean for Pete's sake, even the real ghosts will cringe and come out into the open to declare how mind numbingly silly the hauntings are in this film. I just know they would be saying: "we can shift stuff, make you cold, blow a breeze, play with lights and shadows but we don't do bleeding magic tricks".

It seems to me this film's success will be dependant on its "based on a true story" premise and its Yorkshire setting flavour.

There are some redeeming features about the film, I have already mentioned about the children's drama and nostalgic setting of 70s Britain but the film did also offer a surprising and most welcome period of comic relief towards the end which brought genuine chuckles out of me. I did enjoy that and felt relieved that the film had at least something more to offer. If only it could have given more of that kind of humour earlier to make up for the lack of effective scares.

There is no blood and gore by the way, in case you are concerned about that. And only one f-word is used (to comical effect actually) so, this might earn a rating of PG13. By all means still go see this, if you are very easily scared and are content to be scared for only one or two effective moments.

Being based on a true story might be a pulling factor but I personally think its a cop out.

I rate this 6/10...mainly for the captivating school friendship drama, the sudden burst of humour and for me personally, a retro nostalgia of 70s Britain. Scare factor scale, however, an abysmal zero.

"When the lights went out," is a supposedly true story of a haunting/ exorcism that takes place in England during 1974, and seems more like a reinterpretation of New England's haunting stories of the same era. Somehow the 70's were so bad and dull that even ghosts had to find more to do.

Good: The acting was fine, not great or memorable but fine. The story is a good one, even if over used by movies and the "true story" part is always somewhat of a draw. Although I question the trueness. Being set in the 1970's wasn't too bad and I think they hit the overall 70's feel and look pretty well. The whole haunting thing is always popular as well which always makes a film alluring to watch.

The Bad: Nothing new to see here, except it takes place in England instead of the eastern U.S. "When the lights went out," is another story, supposedly based on true story, that takes place in the 1970's, oddly like another true story in the 1970's "Amityville Horror" (1979) and contains a bit of demonic possession, much like another 1970's movie "The Exorcist"(1973). How many films to the makers of this one think we haven't seen or forgot. There was also very little to cause you to jump in your seat or really fill you with fright when you really do turn out the lights.

I give it a 6 out of 10. It was interesting to watch, they did well bringing the 70's era into it, and not to much to gripe about acting wise. The originalness of the story is questionable at best, and seems to be a combination of a few older movies that came out in the era it takes place. It wasn't nearly scary, and other than a few tiny parts, provided none of the "jump" effect a movie like this needs.

Like my review? Hate em? Comments, questions, or want a DVD reviewed before you waste your time? E-mail me at : subliminal.lithium@gmail.com

I reluctantly began watching what seemed to be yet another Paranormal Activity ripoff but was gradually pulled into the storyline by Pat Holden's fine direction and performances. The mood was effective as was the music score and sound design. I'm a big fan of ghost films, particularly Robert Wise's THE HAUNTING and Peter Medak's THE CHANGELING. While this film doesn't reach those heights, it is so much more effective than any of the American ghost films of the last few years.

I'm also intrigued by paranormal films based on true stories, which this one claims to be, adding more creepiness to the viewing. Making a good chilling film is not nearly as easy as it seems, so hats off to the creators of this good little film.

This movie turned out to be somewhat of a surprise - at least it was to me. What worked out so well in this movie was the mood that they managed to build up, because the story itself was fairly generic. The movie starts out slow, and then gradually builds up in intensity and thrills.

The story in "When the Lights Went Out" is about a small family back in the 1970's where the young daughter starts experiencing strange things happening in their home. These occurrences build up in intensity and eventually start to be physically threatening to the family and anyone entering the house.

If you are a regular to horror movies, and to ghost movies in particular, then you'll not really find anything new or overly innovating here in this movie. That being said, don't get it wrong, I am not saying that "When the Lights Went Out" is a bad movie, far from it, but it just doesn't really offer anything that haven't really been seen before.

As I mentioned above, then it is the mood of the movie that is the centerpiece for this movie, as the director managed to put together something dark and sinister, that slowly escalates and keeps you firmly in your seat. And the approach to the story as to who is actually haunting the family was quite nice - and no, I am not going to spoil anything for you here - just watch it for yourself.

If you enjoy a proper horror movie that involves ghosts and hauntings, then "When the Lights Went Out" is well worth a watch. Though, this is hardly the type of movie that you'll watch a second time around once you've seen it the first time.

As a few other reviewers have mentioned, this is the telling of an average, unoriginal ghost story, but it is well acted, filmed, good sets etc, but the let down for me, was the actual showing of the Ghost. It was shown for too long onscreen, which meant that actually you could study it and in really was just poorly executed.

I thought the two kid actors were great and am surprised that they have not archived bigger things after this movie.

Overall, it is worth a watch as it an enjoyable movie, but you'll certainly not loose sleep at night over it and will most probably forget about it as soon as the credits roll.