When the Lights Went Out

Plot

In 1974, Len and Jenny Maynard move into a new Yorkshire home with their 13-year-old daughter Sally, who is haunted by the ghost of a young girl and a demonic monk. Sally's history teacher, Mr Price, learns the family is haunted by the spirit of a girl murdered in a forest and informs Len. The parents seek help from a paranormal specialist and a local priest. The specialist contacts the spirit but the group is attacked, and the specialist cannot remove the spirits.

Len and his friend Brian blackmail Father Clifton with photos of his affair with his housekeeper to perform an exorcism. Clifton explains the monk preyed on young girls, cutting out their tongues to prevent exposure, and killed the educated girl who could have written about him. The monk was secretly tried, hanged, and buried to protect the church's honour. The exorcism drives the spirit out, but it later returns and attacks Sally, attempting to hang her.

Sally throws the girl's locket into an electric heater, causing a fire; the girl's spirit confronts the monk's spirit, driving it from the house. The family stays, but Sally never enters her bedroom again.

Production

The movie’s story takes inspiration from a reported haunting in West Yorkshire called “The Black Monk of Pontefract.” A poltergeist nicknamed “Fred” was said to throw objects, freeze rooms, create puddles, and make noises. The Pritchards’ daughter Diane was allegedly dragged upstairs by her neck. The case was mostly obscure until Colin Wilson’s 1981 book brought it to paranormal fans. Director Pat Holden admitted he changed details to make the story work as a horror film.