WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT

The Maynard’s move into their dream home, but only to find it inhabited by a “presence”. The daughter Sally (an excellent Tasha Conner) feels it first and warns her parents, but they don’t believe her, espe- cially her mother obsessed with decorating. But the house soon turns into a nightmare for the whole family. The determined mother refuses to move. A psychic is brought in but he fails. The local priest is hilariously blackmailed into performing an exorcism rite in a brief comic scene, the film’s only respite from deepening tension.

Lights is a genuinely terrifying, old-school ghost story, based on true events, called the Maynard haun- ting. Set in an economically depressed Yorkshire in 1974, it is rich with the colour of the times. The film is further enhanced by convincingly portraying both individual anguish and the stress on the family unit as a whole. With excellent first and second roles, Lights is far more than just another poltergeist tale. Director Pat Holden previously shot Awaydays in 2009 and The Long Weekend in 2005.