Cheers guys....
Basically an animated GIF as mentioned by Stephen. This was done in Elements 10.
It is built around 5 layers, a dark layer, lightning, top lights, bottom light, grim reaper/floodlight running at 0.2 frames per sec. Although there are only 5 layers making up the sequence which in running in a loop - in order to hold the other layers longer than the lightning flash they are simply duplicated in the sequence. The overall sequence is 35layers deep so basically each layer is repeated SEVEN times apprx except for the lightning layer which is on its own. The lightning layer is just the same as the preceeding dark layer only with a simple lightning brush downloaded from the web and painted on.
I created a few copies of the original image one which became the dark layer, one that became amber/orange by increasing the temp in camera raw for the lights then masked (think of the dark layer ontop of this amber layer then selective colouring applied for the lights) then some white quickly painted on. The last layer was a mono convert which was used to provide the floodlit area. Again this was done with a mask using the dark layer on top of the mono, then a cone shape drawn on the mask from the light source and a grad applied inside the drawn cone shape to give the impression of the light spread.
Then Save For Web, where you can choose Animate and your Frame Delay value.
....and breathe...