When the Lights Went Out(2012)
2012 · Pat Holden · 86 min
Yorkshire, 1974, the Maynard family moves into their dream house. It's a dream that quickly descends into a panic stricken nightmare as the family discovers a horrifying truth, a truth that will make the history books. The house is already occupied by the most violent poltergeist ever documented, a poltergeist that will tear you from your bed as you sleep and drag you helplessly into the darkness.
Thriller · Drama · Horror
5.7132 votes
TMDB score
3/5
Intensity
1/5
Gore
2/5
Stays with you
How When the Lights Went Out scares
There's a heavy, damp unease that settles in early and just sits on you, more like a slow squeeze than a series of shocks. The pacing favors long stretches of dread inside one house, with the fear coming from a family losing control of their own home rather than from monsters jumping out. A few big, loud disturbances break the quiet, but most of the horror is about helplessness and the sense that something is watching and waiting. It's a good pick if you like grounded, old-school British haunting stories that feel more eerie than gory.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, When the Lights Went Out rates psychological 4/5, visceral 2/5, gore 1/5, lingering effect 2/5, and overall intensity 3/5.
- Psychological: 4 of 5
- Visceral: 2 of 5
- Gore: 1 of 5
- Lingering: 2 of 5
- Intensity: 3 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 30 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 10 of 100 — leans Supernatural
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 45 of 100 — balanced
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A slow domestic build that gradually tightens into escalating disturbances before a harrowing final stretch.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5.
How scary is When the Lights Went Out?
On The Horror Database's 0–5 intensity scale, When the Lights Went Out rates 3/5 — solidly scary, building its fear through slow-burn dread rather than shocks. The fear is mostly in your head — it unsettles far more than it assaults. Expect it to be restrained with gore and scary but not punishing. Some of it will follow you to bed, but it lets go within a day or so.
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