A woman hoping to become a medium, gets involved with a widower, who struggles to deal with his teenage daughter who has developed a phobia of daylight…

At the beginning of Dreaded Light, the feature film debut of writer and director Mark MacNicol, it has the words, ‘Inspired by a true story’. There have been many, many horror films over the years that have claimed that. During the Q&A after the film, one of the film’s composers, Duglas T. Stewart, elaborated on this point, which revealed the casual way it happened. That the event that inspired the film happened in such a low-key manner makes sense, as Dreaded Light, is a low budget film that tells a very emotionally driving, haunting story very well indeed.

To be clear, this isn’t a film that needs to resort to the jump scares you would normally expect in a horror or ghost story. But then Dreaded Light, while a ghost story, isn’t your typical horror film.

Duncan (Adam Robertson), still coming to terms with the death of his wife, unable to go upstairs in their home because of his grief. But because of his own grief, he struggles to see that his daughter, Michelle (Rachel Flynn), has problems of her own. Her phobia of daylight has her hiding away, watching Noesferatu (the version by Werner Herzog, who gave them permission to use some footage in the film) but also confrontational with her father, over how he deals with his grief.

But at the moment Michelle’s behaviour seems to getting stranger, Jen (Kirsty Strain) who has been learning to horse ride at the stables owned by Duncan, tells hium she has a message for him, revealing she is training to be a medium. Duncan is sceptical, refusing to listen, only doing so when Michelle’s behaviour seems to get worse.

Where the story goes from her is where I consider it to be a emotional, haunting story than a full-on horror ghost story. As Jen gets more drawn in, secrets are revealed, leading to an emotional packed ending, that hits like a gut punch.

But thanks to MacNicol’s writing, the story, while developing slowly, dropping story crumbs along the way, never feels forced. It all makes sense by the time the credits roll.

The performances from the three leads are superb, their characters well developed in the script. MacNicol’s direction is good too. The music from Duglas T. Stewart and Andrew Pattie (from the band BMX Bandits) is also good, never needing to resort to some of the cliche’s you might expect. Despite the limited budget and locations, it’s well shot by Sean McDonald.

I went in to see Dreaded Light expecting a Scottish take on the ghost story. I perhaps expected a more traditional horror film, with ghosts and jump scares. If that is what you want from your ghost stories, then Dreaded Light isn’t that type of film.

Instead what it is is a powerful, emotional, haunting story, dealing with grief and mental health issues and does it all brilliantly.

Dreaded Light ultimately is not the film I was expecting.

No…it’s better.

Rating: **** out of 5