The Vigil

Set over the course of a single evening in Brooklyn's Hassidic "Boro" Park neighborhood. Having lost his faith, Yakov (Dave Davis - Greyhound) isn't eager to go back to the insular religious community he only recently fled. But when Reb Shulem (Menashe Lustig - Menashe), a rabbi and confidante, approaches Yakov after a support group meeting and offers to pay Yakov to be the shomer - a respected position of someone who watches over the body overnight to keep it from demons - for a recently deceased Holocaust survivor, he reluctantly accepts the job. Shortly after arriving at the dilapidated house, Yakov realizes that something is very, very wrong.

The concept of The Vigil looks good enough on paper to get excited about. The film could've explored territories that are fairly unknown for many of us who aren't part of the Jewish community, with stories that often involve the supernatural and afterlife. Instead of turning into a 21st century "Jewish Excorcist", it rather takes the easy route and goes for a more lighter version of 'The Autopsy of Jane Doe'. The film takes place in one extremely underlit house, where creepy knocks and creaks help build an ominous atmosphere. What starts off strong quickly gets annoying when rough sound design and annoyingly ineffective jump scares take over, unfortunately losing any emotional impact the story could have created by the end of this haunted night.

Director Keith Thomas seems lost in his own screenplay and never elevates what makes his first feature film stand out: the atmosphere. Those dark rooms sure raise questions, as to why Yakov doesn't turn on more lights and keep them on when he starts witnessing shadows in the corners of the room. The problem with the overpowering darkness is that at one point, that isolating feeling loses its effect and every shadow just becomes a blur. Luckily Davis knows how to handle himself, in what's basically a one-man show.

The Vigil never reaches for that light at the end of the tunnel, relying too much on clichés and overused scare tactics. By keeping it all a bit too vague, it loses any sense of terror it so successfully built up in the first half of the film, making it an unfortunate mishap that could've been an unforgettable original addition to the horror genre.

A solid slow burn that really heats up. Dark and unsettling. The type of film that gets under your skin and stays with you. Jewish horror films are an untapped well. We need to see more!

Quite original with the setting and the scare-jumps for this movie. I enjoyed it from start to end, and found the main actor to be a very good and believable character. The only reason that I did not rate this movie even higher was because the main climax of the horror lasted less than 5 minutes and I was expecting more from that aspect.

Although not perfect, I felt this was an extremely solid debut from Keith Thomas.

There's a lot to enjoy here for fans of horror, the most interesting part being its unique Jewish perspective. The lead was great and I appreciated the different take on the typical haunted house story. The feeling of dread never left my body, the atmosphere it created is exactly what I'm looking for in a horror movie. Unfortunately, there are a couple of cheap jump scares which seemed needless.

Overall a very well rounded horror film with an interesting take and a pretty awesome final act. Highly recommended.

Tense, atmospheric and at times, genuinely scary, the movie has a great emotional and essential story about trauma and its manifestation. Told from the perspective of a man traumatised, himself, the movie explores the dark history of anti-semitism. I felt invested in the emotionally resonant story about loss and hope. I would just complain about the lack of threat by the demon throughout second half, making the proceedings feel less impactful. And also, it is not a really scary film, per se, but there are moments of gold here that work.