In September 2012, another horror film about the "restless house" was released under the title "When the lights go out," directed by Pat Holden (made in Great Britain).
This film is notable for the fact that it is based on a truly real case of a poltergeist that occurred in the late 1960s. in the town of Pontefract in Yorkshire (England) in the home of Joe and Jean Prichard. In specialist literature, this poltergeist is known as the "Black Monk ghost of Pontefract."
Many researchers of anomalous phenomena call this case the most brutal manifestation of poltergeist in Europe, which is associated with many aggressive episodes from the phenomenon, aimed primarily at family members. It is known that unusual phenomena in this ill-fated house began in August 1966, almost immediately after the Pritchard family moved there with their two children: Philip (15 years old) and Diana (12 years old).
At the same time, the phenomenon did not really "sway" and began immediately with active manifestations. Puddles of water appeared in the kitchen, and an incomprehensible "snow" of white powder appeared in the living room, lights were lit and extinguished, pots flew, pieces of wallpaper came to life, objects flew through the air, cupboards and cupboards shook, knocks were heard everywhere, and very often in the house it was suddenly cold. In addition, the poltergeist liked to arrange various tricks with slow flights of objects in the air. One of these episodes, where flying candlesticks appeared, took place in the presence of the local curate Mr. Davey, who personally became convinced of the presence of "something evil" in the house.
Photo of the real house of the Pritchards from the inside.
At the second stage of its manifestations, the poltergeist transferred its aggression to family members, primarily to Philip, and later to his younger sister Diana. The fact is that in 1966, Dinah was absent from home most of the time, and therefore the "ghost" directed his leprosy mainly at her brother Philip. In 1968, when Diana returned home (she was already 14 years old), the poltergeist "woke up" again, but already focusing most of his attention on the daughter of the Pritchards. In one of these cases, a nightstand that flew into the air pressed the poor girl tightly against the wall. In another episode, an invisible force tried to strangle a teenager by dragging her up the stairs by her jacket. Only the intervention of her father and mother allowed Diana to be freed from the strangulation. At the same time, reddened marks from the "ghost's" fingers remained on the girl's neck.
The exorcism sessions conducted several times in the house only led to an increase in the activity of the phenomenon. After one of these sessions, all the crucifixes in the house were demonstratively turned upside down. Although the Pritchards were generally used to the presence of "Mr. Nobody" or "Fred" (as they called him), things got more complicated every night. As the Pritchards noted, already at the end of the paranormal activity in their home, they periodically began to see a tall figure resembling a black monk in a hood, which they later associated with "Mr. Nobody". After the episode of suffocation, which became the apogee of the poltergeist manifestation, Philip hung garlic all over the house. Strange, but it worked. After years of terror, "Fred" disappeared and never reappeared again.
Promotional video:
The well-known paranormal researcher Colin Wilson was actively involved in this case. His original opinion was that the Pontefrat poltergeist is more connected with the activity of the ghost than, as in the case of the classical poltergeist, with some involuntary activity of the psyche, for example, Philip or Diana. Wilson noted that the analysis of all episodes of this poltergeist speaks of the manifestation of a particular mind, and its excessive aggressiveness towards the house and family members cannot be associated with the psyche of Diana or Philip.
Wilson's friend, local historian Tom Canniff, partly confirmed the psycho-researcher's original hypothesis. Cannif studied the history of these places and found that the Pritchard house was located on the site of the former gallows, where during the reign of Henry VIII a certain monk of the Cluny order was hanged for rape. True, later Wilson himself did not find evidence of execution or violence and therefore turned to the observations of Rene Aldan, who identified the underground streams with the "field of naiads" (a humid place that holds a localized electromagnetic field). According to the hypothesis of T. K. Lethbridge, it is ideal for the "mental" imprints of emotional stress.
Based on this, Wilson changes his original opinion about the Pontefractic poltergeist and concludes that the solution to the mystery lies in the geomagnetic properties of the area. In his opinion, in such places the psychic energy of a person and the geomagnetic properties of the area can somehow interact and produce all sorts of phenomena. Although Wilson did not completely abandon the original idea and admitted that two factors could co-operate in the Pritchard house: the “ghost” factor and the factor of special mental states of a person. The researcher noted that the awakened entity could pick up the mood from the Pritchards and their friends, and its powers supported subconscious participation, as well as the abilities of a medium in Philip, and later in Diana.
In the movie "When the Lights Go Out," the creators initially changed some of the details of the real story. First of all, the location and the names of the main characters. The composition of the family decreased by one person, only the father, mother and their daughter remained. But at the same time, the general picture of events and the general meaning of everything that happens in the film is largely correlated with real events in Pontefract. The typical problems of a poor English family, representatives of the working class, who are trying to resist the hardships of life as best they can, are clearly shown. Against the background of everyday difficulties, fate presents them with problems of a paranormal nature.
From the point of view of the researcher, the film turned out to be close enough to reality, reflecting the nature of the course of a typical violent poltergeist. The picture was filmed in the UK, so there is no Hollywood gloss and feigned drama in it. And the real story itself does not need exaggeration and embellishment, since it initially contained a sufficient number of dramatic events and vivid paranormal incidents. It is not for nothing that the Pontefractic poltergeist is still considered the most brutal poltergeist in Europe.