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Review: Horror movie ‘The Vigil’ effectively explores grief and trauma through a Jewish lens

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Horror films often offer catharsis but rarely are they also as deeply sorrowful as Keith Thomas’ “The Vigil,” a horror film based in Jewish faith and culture. Dave Davis stars as Yakov, a young Brooklyn man struggling to establish a secular life, having left the orthodox community after a traumatic experience. One night leaving a support group meeting, he encounters someone from his old life, Reb Shulem (Menashe Lustig), who offers him a job spending the night as a shomer : a person who serves as a protective watchman over a dead body before it is taken to be buried.

The first red flag is the urgency of the request: The first shomer left unexpectedly in fear. But Yakov is in need of cash and has done this before. If the dead man’s wife, Mrs. Litvak ( Lynn Cohen ), is behaving a bit strangely (Shulem explains she has Alzheimer’s and her husband was a recluse), it’s only five hours and he can stick it out for the 400 bucks.

Initially, Yakov chalks up the spooky occurrences in the home, including his nightmares, the bumps in the night, the twitching shroud and a figure looming in the dark, to his faltering mental health, placing a call to his psychiatrist. But he can’t ignore the strange technological invasions within his newly acquired iPhone, or Mrs. Litvak’s troubling behavior and warnings. She describes to Yakov the mental torture that she attributes to an ancient demon, the Mazzik, that plagued her husband and drove their children away. “These memories,” she says, “they bite, and the biting never stops.”

“The Vigil” is Thomas’ directorial debut and the filmmaking is efficiently creepy, if a bit leading. The cameradirects your attention to every detail, lingering so long you feel you’re practically willing the sheet to move or the shadow to emerge from the darkness. It’s an effective way of placing us in Yakov’s position, questioning whether these things are actually happening or if our mind is playing tricks.

Michael Yezerski’s score is equally forceful, the ominous tones practically screaming, “something bad is about to happen here.” The score is a bit more effective when it swirls into more abstract electronic compositions, but Thomas’ approach to tone is unabashedly horrific, embracing the not-so-subtle elements of horror style that guide and shape our expectations and emotions. Thomas utilizes the genre to tell this story that uses Jewish lore and demonology to talk about memory, catharsis and trauma; Davis’ incredible performance brings a deeply sad and rueful element to the film.

“The Vigil” embraces Jewish culture not just in its settings and religious symbology, but in the way that memory and the processing of intergenerational trauma is a crucial part of Jewish existence especially after the Holocaust, while reckoning with anti-Semitism and hate crimes. It articulates that collective catharsis can alleviate those biting memories and past traumas in the present, allaying grief through personal atonement and forgiveness. Because those demons can be scary, but scarier still are our own regrets that go unrectified.

'The Vigil'

Rated: PG-13, for terror, some disturbing/violent images, thematic elements and brief strong language Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes Playing: Starts Feb. 26, Vineland Drive-in, City of Industry; Cinelounge Drive-in, Hollywood; and in general release where theaters are open; also on digital and VOD

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‘The Vigil’: The Dybbuk Stops Here

By David Fear

They are called s homers, folks who sit by a recently deceased family member or loved one, often in shifts, to watch over the body before burial. It’s a centuries-old Jewish tradition, designed to keep the soul of the dead safe from harm. Should a relative be unwilling or unable to perform this duty, it’s possible to pay a professional to sub in. It’s an honor and a calling, though there are some pitfalls in the shomer-for-hire business one needs to be aware of. The likelihood of extreme boredom is high for those who aren’t comfortable with silence, corpses, or a lack of company. The hours can be unusual. And there’s always the possibility that you may run into a spirit that, having been previously feeding off the anima of the person who’s just joined the choir invisible, may be looking for a fresh host.

An intriguing stab at modern Hasidic horror — we smell a burgeoning subgenre — The Vigil (in theaters and online starting February 26th) will feel like well-trod ground to anyone who’s seen a few supernatural thrillers; only the neighborhood has changed. Filmed among Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Borough Park, writer-director Keith Thomas’ debut stakes its claim in that spectral corner of cinema du scare via a specific set of cultural rules, superstitions, rituals, and mores. Although when we meet the man who’ll be our guide to this particular haunted house, he’s severed his ties to all of that. Yakov (Dave Davis) has left his Hasidic life behind and is trying to figure out how to navigate his new life. He has a support group, a mentor-cum-sponsor (Nati Rabinowitz), and the attentions of a young woman named Sarah (Malky Goldman). What Yakov needs is money.

So when a community elder (Menashe Lustig, star of the extraordinary character study Menashe ) ambushes him after a meeting and begs the young man to fill in for an AWOL shomer at the last minute, Yakov reluctantly accepts. Maybe it will be of comfort to you, the older reb suggests. Maybe you can reconnect to what you’ve forsaken. At the very least, it’s some quick cash. What neither men know is that the deceased comes with some baggage, including … something wicked that had attached itself to him decades ago after a tragedy. Given that Yakov himself suffered a serious trauma not that long ago, he may also be susceptible to this spiritual parasite. And if Michael Yezerski’s industrial-spooky score and Zach Kuperstein’s dark, forbidding cinematography somehow haven’t tipped you off that this is, in fact, a horror movie, the image of the two men walking up the steps to the late gent’s apartment, shot in perfect Exorcist silhouette , confirms that things are about to get terrifying.

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The shadow of William Friedkin’s Seventies blockbuster looms large over every film from the past 50 years that’s dabbled in possession narratives and tales of personal demons being used as fodder by real demons. But it’s especially influential here, even with the Judaic folklore subbing in for Christian ideology. Unlike Father Karras, Yakov has left a world governed by religious beliefs and age-old practices. Like The Exorcist ‘s white-collared knight, however, he has had a serious crisis of faith — if not in God, then certainly in a community that raised, nurtured, and possibly repressed him. A graduate of New York City’s Hebrew University College with a master’s in religious education, Thomas knows the world of which he depicts, and isn’t out to exploit Hasidism. He doesn’t seem that interested in exploring it much either, for that matter, which may be a blessing or a bit of a curse. Other than some criticism of the insular subculture’s conservative side via Yakov’s support group, there’s very little to suggest a deeper interest in or into this world past merely putting it onscreen. Which, given how little representation said world usually gets, could itself be construed as a stance. (If The Vigil doesn’t exactly double as a parable for cutting ties with orthodoxy, it does make the struggle literal — when Yakov tries to leave his post after things get nightmarish, he’s physically broken down and dragged right back to where he started.)

Yakov has also had a stay in a hospital that, it’s intimated, was preceded by a mental breakdown. Thus the lines are blurred as to whether little things like cadavers twitching under sheets, the dead man’s widow (played by the late, great Lynn Cohen) scurrying up a void of a staircase, the sound of a rotten toenail scraping against a linoleum floor, or a video clip texted to Yakov of him asleep on a chair in the same room he’s currently standing in are real or the product of a cracked mind. The dybbuk stops here regardless, and The Vigil is nothing if not determined to break out every trick in the malevolent-spirit-run-amuck book to spook, unsettle, and jar you. Unexplained noises, blaring soundtracks, sudden appearances (and disappearances), figures seemingly coming out of the walls, creepy-crawly bugs, basements with rickety 16mm projectors working of their own accord, a demonic mazzikin with heavy metaphorical significance: You can almost hear a checklist being ticked.

Thomas knows how to fill a frame and how to make something like the film’s final shot feel clever simply via a matter of focus. (The way he utilizes specific Jewish iconography for Yakov’s final standoff is a nice touch as well.) He also seems to rely heavily on a stock arsenal of scare tactics — as well as a message about letting go of guilt, pain, and the past — that can make you feel like you’ve seen/heard this ghost story before. Familiarity doesn’t breed contempt in this case. It only makes you pine for its creator to follow a less predictable, less comfortable path.

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The Vigil Review

This intense demon thriller is as much about trauma as it is the supernatural..

The Vigil is now available on Digital and VOD and is playing in select theaters.

Hollywood horror, especially supernatural horror, has been largely defined by Christian imagery, which is part of why Keith Thomas’ debut feature The Vigil feels so refreshing. Steeped in the Jewish tradition of shemira — the watching-over of a body from the time of death until burial — the film mines spiritual ideas which may not be immediately familiar to most goyim audiences. But Thomas’s 90-minute, one-location Yiddish and English story is so fine-tuned, and so emotionally riveting, that it feels like the work of a seasoned maestro who’s been dealing in these themes for decades.

Horror films in Yiddish are rare. Unless you count the few Yiddish lines in Demon (2016), you’d have to go back as far as Michal Waszynski’s The Dybbuk in 1937. Writer-director Thomas, a rabbinical school dropout , was keenly aware of the lack of traditional Jewish supernatural horror when he made the film, and he attributes this to Judaism’s comparative lack of concepts like the Christian Hell and its demonic emissaries. 2012’s The Possession comes to mind as mainstream Jewish horror, but even that film felt like The Exorcist (1973) with some specifics shuffled around.

From where, then, does Thomas mine his terrors? One answer seems obvious: the film forces its characters to look inward at both personal and cultural loss. The other answer, however, isn’t one you’d expect: The Vigil’s horror is just as technological as it is supernatural.

The story spans a single night and follows Yakov Ronen (Dave Davis), a young Hasidic man in New York who attends a support group for those who’ve left ultra-Orthodoxy behind. He feels isolated even in social settings. Money is tight, forcing him to choose between meals and medication, and he hasn’t yet grown comfortable with dating norms; his group-mate Sarah (Malky Godlman) puts her number in his phone when he can’t figure out how. There’s also something deeper troubling Yakov — something more painful than these new fears of technology and intimacy — which the film holds back on revealing until the moment is opportune. Perhaps it waits a little too long, but scenes, where the tension dissipates are few and far between

When the group session ends, Yakov is approached by his former rabbi Reb Shulem (Menashe Lustig, subject of semi-autobiography Menashe), who offers him an overnight job for a quick payday. It seems like Yakov’s money woes might be temporarily soothed, but Shulem has other motives: the job is that of a shomer, or a guardian for a recently deceased Hasidic man named Mr. Litvak (Ronald Cohen), and Shulem hopes the tradition will nudge Yakov back towards his religious roots.

Yakov agrees to the money, though not to Shulem’s spiritual advances, and heads straight to the Litvaks’ dingy two-story residence in Borough Park. Complicating matters is the fact that the widowed Mrs. Litvak (the late, inimitable Lynn Cohen) suffers from dementia, but the task seems simple enough: Yakov must watch over the deceased for five hours, until sunrise. However, something is amiss, both with the body and with the darkened surroundings. Yakov has been taking pills, so it could all just be a trick of the mind, but he soon begins to see and hear things lurking in the shadows. He also discovers that Mr. Litvak had become obsessed with a mazzik — a malevolent demon from Talmudic lore — which he believed had been haunting him, and would pass to a nearby soul upon his death. Could Yakov be that soul?

The Vigil feels like a tug of war between tradition and modernity. Yakov hopes to leave behind his old Hasidic life and assimilate into gentile society, but upon entering the Litvaks’ home, he’s immediately surrounded by traditional imagery, which reminds him of a past in which he stuck out sorely, in even in a city as multicultural as New York. One such sleep-deprived flashback involves an antisemitic attack, during which Yakov’s payos (or side-curls) and traditional Hasidic garb turned him and his younger brother Burech (Ethan Stone) into instant targets. Yakov may not bear the physical scars of this incident, but it weighs on him emotionally and makes his new buzz-cut appearance feel like an attempt to suppress this painful history.

"The Vigil feels like a tug of war between tradition and modernity."Jewish trauma plays a key part in the film’s creeping horrors, though strangely, some of the experiences Yakov recalls may not even be his own. The film frequently circles back to a scene from the Holocaust — specifically, an anonymous Jewish man being forced, by a Nazi officer, to do terrible things to survive — and though the film doesn’t provide a direct explanation, it offers hints that the mazzik may be able to conjure other people’s memories. The only thing Yakov knows about Mr. Litvak is that he survived the Holocaust — but no matter whose memories these are, they evoke a larger, more violent history whose specter Yakov can’t escape.

Yakov’s flashback and these mysterious World War II memories are linked aesthetically to some of the abstract, seemingly supernatural goings-on around the Litvaks’ home. The result is a narrative continuum in which intergenerational trauma defines not just the characters, but the physical spaces around them. The attack in Yakov’s past unfolded on a darkened street, and the house he now finds himself in is engulfed in shadow; when the demon first takes physical form, its legs peek out from behind a wall, evoking an image from Yakov’s flashback best left unspoiled. Similarly, the Holocaust memory involves a woman turning her head back to gaze at the mysterious man, and Mr. Litvak’s description of the mazzik (in a video he recorded) involves a ghastly figure with its head turned backward, forever cursed to gaze into the past. The mazzik’s horrific appearance is revealed slowly, and it thankfully doesn’t end up a deflating CGI-fest like many monsters of its ilk (the otherwise adept His House comes to mind). As much as the mazzik embodies physical torment, it’s also a twisted mirror to personal and generational survivor’s guilt. For the most part, the film’s scares emanate from within.

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But even though tradition is where the horror seems to originate, modernity isn’t the answer. In fact, escape from tradition is framed as equally terrifying, when it involves traumas unaddressed. The question of why Yakov can’t simply leave the house is answered in delightfully gory fashion, and the film even takes a few sharp turns into tech thriller territory. At first, this feels like throwing too much at the wall just to see what sticks — strange videos, phone calls, and text messages keep entering the film’s fabric — but it slowly ends up working on numerous fronts.

For one thing, Yakov’s own perspective becomes less reliable as the night wears on (and he certainly can’t trust Mrs. Litvak’s), and as technology evolves, a digital image can be as easily manipulated as a distant memory. So the concept of truth, both internal and external, becomes increasingly hazy. For another, the film also begins to fold tradition and modernity together in intriguing ways. The camera constantly holds on dark corners and negative spaces — we love a good “What’s in the shadows?” story, don’t we, folks? — but each time the film displays texts and other media (right beside the main character, à la Sherlock or House of Cards), it overlays these messages and videos over dark corners of the screen. At first, the light emanating from them feels like a respite; Yakov retreats into his phone as a distraction from whatever he may (or may not) be seeing. But soon, even his phone — his window into modernity, and his escape from the Litvaks’ home — becomes a source of unease. The personal intimacy of texts, calls and video chats feels uncanny and uncertain when he sees and hears things he shouldn’t even on his screen. Light becomes just as chilling as darkness.

Some of the film’s techniques may feel familiar (especially with regards to jump scares), but the way Thomas & co. capture intimate spaces have a unique finesse. For one thing, the film’s use of anamorphic lenses — so often associated with either portrait-like close-ups or gorgeous landscapes — makes even empty space feel disorienting. A simple pan across the darkness, from a distracted, dimly lit Yakov to the body he’s watching over subtly distorts his own body as he’s pushed to the curved corner of the frame, foreshadowing physical horrors yet to come. Zach Kuperstein’s low-light, high-contrast cinematography is downright eerie. The few times he lets brightness enter the frame, it’s immediately turned into anamorphic flares, with light once again becoming as disorienting as darkness. Whatever the shadowy mazzik comes to represent for Yakov, there’s no escape from it.

Without getting into too much detail, the major exception to this aesthetic approach arrives at a key story moment, when Yakov decides to face his traumas head-on by finally embracing some part of himself he left behind. The scene is lit by Shabbat candles, rather than electric and electronic sources which keep flickering in and out. The candles never waver; thanks to tradition, Yakov briefly knows stability. His embrace involves him wrapping the straps of a tefillin — a black leather box inscribed with Torah verses — around his arm as the music swells. It’s a deeply reconciliatory moment, of a man finding fleeting comfort amidst emotional turbulence, and Yakov’s resolve also makes him feel a boxer taping his wrists before a dangerous fight. Although, on a deeper level, it feels like the bonds between his past and present being reforged, albeit temporarily, as he searches for a path to spiritual healing.

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That aforementioned emotional musical swell is an exception too. It’s the only time Michael Yezerski’s score is populated by traditional string instruments. During the rest of the film, Yezereski fills the soundscape with a combination of deeply unsettling electronic sounds and, if you listen closely, human voices crying out in agony. The music practically saws its way through nerve and muscle until it touches bone; every element of the film is jarring on the surface, but when you dig a little deeper, it reveals something both more spine-chilling and more recognizably human.

Shapeless shadows begin to take familiar forms. Mysterious sounds begin to resemble footsteps. And the performances by Dave Davis and Lynn Cohen force their way past two-dimensional horror tropes — a troubled man who might be an unreliable narrator, and an old woman uncomfortably close to demonic conspiracies — until they become deeply moving portraits of lingering trauma, and the way grief manifests in mind, body, and spirit.

Intense and atmospheric, Keith Thomas’ The Vigil invigorates demonic horror by centering on Jewish traditions, especially those concerning death. Part haunted house, part tech thriller, and entirely grounded by Dave Davis’ harrowing performance, the film never loses sight of questions of cultural identity, and the ways it intersects with personal and collective trauma.

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The Vigil Reviews

Writer and director Keith Thomas knows how to keep us invested, and cinematographer Zach Kuperstein makes excellent use of the dark setting.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 14, 2024

The [horror] mechanics employed throughout the movie become a bit repetitive and on-the-nose, making the audience a mere witness to an atonement. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 27, 2023

It seems there's been a curse on horror movies of recent decades, few productions are capable of ending at the same level in which they began. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 27, 2023

Albeit its uninspired ending, The Vigil is scary and vindicates the genre with honest resources and the weight of its story. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 27, 2023

The Vigil has an intriguing plot and insight into religious traditions that aren't always the subject of most horror films.

Full Review | Oct 28, 2022

A crafty theme-conscious horror film with an interesting cultural perspective and mostly good instincts when it comes keeping its audience squirming.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 17, 2022

Production Designer Liz Toonkel does interesting work turning the suburban mundane into the creepy, aided by Michael Yezerski's deliberately provoking score.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 15, 2022

Like a great short story, The Vigil keeps the stakes low and the atmosphere high, creating a mood that elevates everything even when the plot goes a bit too far.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | May 10, 2022

Well-crafted and strong on the psychological elements -- thanks as much to Thomas' writing as Davis' portrayal -- this is a solid horror with some interesting subtext.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 14, 2021

To conjure claustrophobia, director Keith Thomas relies less on the haunted house setting and more on the inherent discomfort of being born inside a fringe group.

Full Review | Jul 9, 2021

Director/writer Keith Thomas creates a wonderful sense of dark, claustrophobic environment.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jun 17, 2021

Even if his execution of the concept can be banal in places, it's easy to forgive Thomas his cliches - The Vigil has brought something new and exciting.

Full Review | Jun 6, 2021

It's very creepy and very limited space... It's an effective movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 22, 2021

A quintessential low-budget supernatural horror, The Vigil mines Jewish folklore and rituals to create an effective sub-genre experience.

Full Review | May 1, 2021

Determining what is real or imagined is often a challenge in horror and filmmaker Keith Thomas is adroit at manipulating this.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 29, 2021

[Director] Keith Thomas does what he can to elicit some genuine scares and suspenseful moments with his clever use of camerawork, sound effects and dark environment.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 5, 2021

The Vigil (written and directed by Keith Thomas) takes an effective 'less is more' approach by keeping the story simple while still delivering on some genuinely creepy scares.

Full Review | Apr 4, 2021

This is a really damn good horror film made on a tight budget with almost one location only, and it never drags. They find really exciting ways to use this location to their advantage.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Mar 30, 2021

The hook, the cultural aspect, the concept, the unsettling imagery and especially the acting elevate 'The Vigil' above being just another modestly budgeted haunted house movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 11, 2021

The most original, most chilling horror film of the new year.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 11, 2021

The Vigil (Movie Review)

Luke's rating: ★ ★ ★ director: keith thomas | release date: 2021.

Steady, creeping dread is the order of the day in 2021. With Saint Maud finally making its long awaited appearance, The Night ’s spooky hotel vibe, and now The Vigil . Steeped in Jewish tradition and mythology, Keith Thomas’s directorial debut is draped in ominous imagery all while delivering an effective demonic horror yarn that’s not immune to tired genre cliches.

Set in or near Brooklyn’s Hasidic Borough Park, Yakov (Dave Davis), having recently left his Jewish Orthodox community and low on cash, reluctantly accepts an offer from his former rabbi to be a “shomer”—the Jewish practitioner who watches over the body of a deceased member of the community to protect their soul from malevolent spirits. Not long into the night, Yalov is beset by an evil presence that plays tricks on his mind and is seemingly intent on further poisoning his already shaken faith.

There’s an immediacy to The Vigil’s plot early on, as Yakov is recruited outside of a community meeting and immediately escorted to the home he’s meant to watch over until dawn. The walk and talk quickly fills the audience in on the pertinent details of what Yakov is walking into while also getting the bare minimum of character beats from Yakov himself.

However, The Vigil’s most enticing feature is the mounting dread that’s heavy out of the gate and once Yakov is left to his own devices with a veiled body consistently in the background...the ghostly and demonic vibes are thick and palpable. This is a testament to the mood derived from Thomas’s visual style. However, the shadowy corridors, ominous as they are, are so shrouded by darkness that the plethora of jump scares don’t always feel earned. Anything jumping out of pitch black darkness with ear shattering music and sound accompanying it is bound to make even a hardened genre nerd jump and send their heart racing. Nonetheless, a scare is a scare, and The Vigil is loaded with heart-jolting moments and unsettling visuals that once again benefit from Thomas’s delivery of the content both visually and in the sound design.

The Vigil is another film perfect for patient viewers who crave a hefty religious foundation in their horror. It’s going to lack the spooky momentum for genre buffs who like a little extra bang for their buck, but The Vigil has enough eerie chills and in-your-face jump scares to satisfy anyone looking for some empty jolts.

Staff Writer

Horror movies and beer - the only two viable options for entertainment in the wastelands of Nebraska as far as he's concerned. When he's not in the theater he's probably drinking away the sorrows of being a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan.

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There are tons of horror movies about Christian rites and rituals, but very few that explore Jewish religious traditions, let alone in a thoughtful and respectful way. Writer-director Keith Thomas takes on that challenge with his debut feature The Vigil , a relatively straightforward horror movie that feels creative and fresh thanks to its grounding in a specific faith tradition. The Vigil not only draws on Judaism in general, but also takes place within an insular Jewish community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, where the Orthodox community lives separated from the outside life of the city. Adding to that portrait of an isolated enclave within the city, most of The Vigil ’s dialogue is in Yiddish.

The Vigil opens not in Borough Park, but elsewhere in New York City, at a sort of support group for Jewish people who’ve left the secluded Orthodox community to join the wider world. Yakov Ronen (Dave Davis) is still adjusting to secular life, struggling to find a job and pay his rent. He’s also suffering from unspecified mental health issues, having spent time in a psychiatric hospital. Yakov receives encouragement from his fellow Orthodox expatriates, all of whom have gone through the same adjustment period. He even garners the attention of Sarah (Malky Goldman), an attractive young woman who invites him for coffee and gives him her number. Yakov, who’s only just learned how to use a cell phone and is used to strict gender separation, Googles “how to talk to women.”

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Yakov can’t entirely escape the pull of his former community, though, and he’s susceptible to a plea from Reb Shulem (Menashe Lustig), a religious leader who corners Yakov after the meeting. Shulem offers the cash-strapped Yakov $400 to serve as a shomer, someone who sits shiva (the Jewish tradition of holding vigil over the recently deceased) when family members are unavailable or unable. So Yakov reluctantly agrees to return to Borough Park and spend five hours overnight with the body of a local Holocaust survivor who has just died.

It’s clear from the start that something isn’t right in this situation. Shulem tells Yakov that the previous shomer literally ran off, and when the two men arrive at the deceased’s home, his widow (Lynn Cohen) insists that they leave immediately. But Yakov needs the money, and Shulem assures him that old Mrs. Litvak is suffering from dementia and will simply sleep through the night. Yakov settles in to earn his fee inside this very creepy house with a dead body and an unstable old lady.

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What follow are a lot of standard horror-movie mysterious noises and lurking apparitions, but Thomas deploys them effectively, and  The Vigil has built up Yakov enough as a character that he’s worth caring about. There are periodic flashbacks to a traumatic moment in Yakov’s past that motivated both his exit from Borough Park and his mental breakdown, and Thomas reveals bits and pieces of the incident over time, building suspense but never cheating the audience. Likewise, the nature of the supernatural infestation in the Litvak house becomes clearer as the movie goes on, thanks to some cryptic words from Mrs. Litvak and a familiar-looking wall of clippings and photos in the basement.

Yakov also eventually watches a literal video explaining the threat he’s facing, but even this clichéd bit of exposition is handled in a creepy, understated way. Most of  The Vigil takes place within the confines of the house, and Thomas finds creative ways to use the same space with multiple approaches. A particularly unsettling moment toward the end of the movie involves Yakov simply walking down a hallway, as the walls bulge with ghouls and the passage seems to go on forever.

And while The Vigil never loses sight of its aim of scaring the audience, it never loses sight of its thematic concerns, either. Yakov’s trauma is directly tied to his struggle with his Jewish identity, and the demon itself could be representative of unhealthy ties that hold him (or anyone trying to leave a repressive environment) back from moving forward with his life. Davis gives the character a sense of vulnerability and determination that makes his personal journey about more than just defeating a nasty demon. Veteran character actor Cohen makes for a perfect mix of sinister and kindly as the elderly Mrs. Litvak.

The relatively small-scale production offers only brief glimpses of the demon itself, but it’s just enough to make the creature convincingly dangerous. The production design emphasizes the claustrophobic nature of the cramped Litvak house, and the cinematography keeps the images dim, even with the lights on, as if Yakov can never quite see his path forward. It’s all pretty familiar horror material, but Yakov is experiencing it from his own unique perspective, and in that way, the audience is, too.

Starring Dave Davis, Lynn Cohen, Malky Goldman and Menashe Lustig, The Vigil opens Friday, Feb. 26 in select theaters and on VOD.

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Review: the vigil confidently roots its horror in jewish culture and mysticism.

Keith Thomas’s film hums with uncanny dread, milking the close juxtaposition of living and dead for all its worth.

Keith Thomas’s The Vigil has a premise so inherently creepy that it’s a wonder that it’s never been used as grist for the horror mill until now. Yakov Ronen (Dave Davis), a recent defector from the Hasidic Jewish community of Brooklyn’s Borough Park, is approached outside of a support group meeting for others like him by his former rabbi (Menashe Lustig), who asks him to serve as a “shomer” for the night. In accordance with Jewish tradition, he must watch over the body of a recently deceased Holocaust survivor, Rubin Litvak, to protect his soul until his remains can be interred. Though reticent to return to the community from which he’s trying so hard to break free, Yakov needs the money, and so he agrees to spend the night at the Litvak house, sitting in the living room with Mr. Litvak’s corpse laid out on a table while his dementia-addled widow (Lynn Cohen) retires upstairs.

Seemingly taking a cue from André Øvredal’s similarly corpse-centric horror thriller The Autopsy of Jane Doe , Thomas’s confidently constructed debut hums with uncanny dread, milking the close juxtaposition of living and dead for all its worth. In a particularly patient and assured long take, we watch as Yakov sits down at a table, his back to Mr. Litvak, and pops in earbuds to listen to music. Nothing exactly happens in this sequence, but Thomas’s shadowy, lamp-lit composition invites us to survey every single inch of frame—to spot the corpse in motion or, a perhaps, a ghost in the corner of the screen. And as you stare at this scene for what comes to feel like an eternity, you may even start to see things that aren’t really there.

Of course, plenty of spectral apparitions and things that go bump in the night do figure into The Vigil , which employs all sorts of tried-and-true methods to scare us, from morphing bodies to a toenail peeling out of the skin. But if the film’s big scares aren’t especially original, they’re nevertheless executed with care and precision, and Thomas manages to work in some distinctly Jewish Orthodox customs into the proceedings, such as a payot that’s pulled out of a character’s mouth and the tefillin, which is used as a kind of armor for spiritual combat in the film’s climactic confrontation between Yakov and a demon known as the Mazzik.

It’s this cultural specificity that gives the film its singular punch. With a few notable exceptions, such as Paul Wegener and Carl Boese’s silent classic The Golem and Michael Mann’s The Keep , Jewish themes have remained largely unexplored in the annals of horror cinema. J. Hoberman, writing about Ole Bornedale’s Dybbuk-themed The Possession suggested that “the past hundred years of Jewish history have been sufficiently horrendous to preclude the possibility of a Jewish horror film,” but Thomas shows how that dark history can be elegantly incorporated into a relatively straightforward genre film without overwhelming it.

Like Marcin Wrona’s Demon , The Vigil links the evil spirit at its center to the Holocaust, to suggest the terrible weight of the past, but also to get at something even more insidious and unsettling: the Jews’ forced participation in anti-Semitic violence. If Thomas is a bit heavy-handed in expressing this theme through the prism of horror—at one point, Yakov faces the demon and finds that it has his own face—the film’s ambition and sensitivity around invoking real-world violence is impressive to behold. With The Vigil , Thomas hasn’t simply put a Jewish spin on a standard paranormal chiller story, but rather used the tools of the horror genre to express a sense of tragedy deeply rooted in his own cultural history.

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The Vigil | Film Review

Aaron B. Peterson February 25, 2021

Horror films today often fall into essentially the same three camps: vile contests for cheap jump scares amplified by grotesque special effects, societal observations amplified into horrific nightmares of everyday reality, and quiet tension burners that trust their audience to remain engaged while the story unfolds as a character engages their surroundings. The Vigil is writer-director Keith Thomas’ atmospheric take on the latter concept, and what a remarkable debut film it is.

Yakov Ronen (Dave Davis) is an unassuming young man with minimal social skills, a vague grasp on technology, and minimal prospects for financial viability. In order to make a little cash, and despite recently leaving his Jewish community, Dave agrees to provide services as a “shomer” for Mrs. Litvak (Lynn Cohen). A shomer is a person in the Jewish faith who sits over the corpse of someone until burial to protect the body of the deceased. Yakov soon learns that his ward, Mr. Litvak, was presumably tortured by a demon known as a mazzik for years, and now it is searching for a new host.

Dave Davis is the centerpiece to The Vigil; everything we witness (or think we do) is presented through the eyes of Yakov. Keith Thomas’ screenplay utilizes flashbacks to illuminate the audience on what facilitated Yakov’s departure from the Jewish faith, and Davis conveys the remainder of Yakov’s character work through mild mannerisms and ever-growing paranoia with an ease that allows us to become immediately immersed in the terrors at hand.

Adding to Davis’ layered performance is Lynn Cohen’s stellar turn as Mrs. Litvak. At any given moment, Cohen’s character could be suffering from grief, dementia, or be completely lucid. We never know, and it is this constant guessing that directly contributes to our own fears for Yakov’s situation, as the inability to know exactly where Mrs. Litvak stands at any giving moment is a prime component for how effective our own fears of the mazzik are.

The majority of what transpires in The Vigil occurs within the confining walls of Mrs. Litvak’s humble home. It is a tightly spaced location, and Thomas wisely makes the most of the elements while allowing time necessary for a scene to live and breathe.  At times, Thomas will fixate his camera on one static shot for just enough time that we worry we might’ve missed a vital clue, at other times his camera whips around corners akin to the early works of Sam Raimi (minus the blood splatter). Angles and shots are varied enough to retain our interest as we discover the truth of what is happening to Yakov, as well as keeping the audience deeply vested in “what’s going to happen next?”.

The Hollywood Outsider Review Score

Performances - 7.5, screenplay - 6.5, production - 7.

Keith Thomas delivers a remarkable debut in this taut, horrific thriller.

Tags Dave Davis keith thomas Malky Goldman Menashe Lustig and Lynn Cohen the vigil

About Aaron B. Peterson

‘The Vigil’ review: reality-blurring horror that tests faith and exploits our fears

Determining what is real or imagined is often a challenge in horror and filmmaker Keith Thomas is adroit at manipulating this

R eligious rituals have long inspired horror films. From genre classics such as The Exorcist and The Omen right up to forthcoming British sizzler Saint Maud , the links between organised religion, a belief in the supernatural and a damn good scare are clear. Often, stories derived from Christianity inform horror. With The Vigil, debut writer-director Keith Thomas offers a new perspective by delving into an esoteric practice from the Jewish faith.

In Brooklyn, unemployed Yacov (Dave Davis from Bomb City and The Walking Dead ) is offered $400 to act as a shomer for the night, a job which requires him to guard the dead body of Holocaust survivor Rubin Litvak until dawn. With trepidation, Yacov dutifully enters Litvak’s home in the Hasidic Jewish Boro Park neighbourhood. He is disconcerted by Litvak’s widow, played with a chilling blend of dementia and foresight by Lynn Cohen ( Munich , The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ) but decides to settle in for the night against his better judgement.

Over the course of the night, Yacov’s mental stability and faith are tested by a series of visions. An early scene had already suggested Yacov renounced strict adherence to his faith and during the vigil recurring memories of a horrible incident of racially-motivated assault torment him and suggests why he feels inclined towards secular life. Litvak’s own horrifying memories of the Holocaust repeat and blur into Yacov’s, and both the viewer and Yacov have to constantly question what is seen and heard. Determining what is real or imagined is often an audience challenge in horror and Thomas is adroit at exploiting our fears.

Before he turned filmmaker, Thomas studied at Rabbi school, and researched the Boro Park community thoroughly before shooting there, going far to allow the action to feel and look authentic even when it’s at its most startling. The ugly screeching of Australian composer Michael Yezerski’s anxiety-inducing industrial score, meanwhile, is suitably nightmarish and cinematographer Zach Kuperstein’s artfully lit scenes keep us guessing what will be next to emerge from the shadows.

Ultimately though, it’s a shame that Yacov himself is not a hugely interesting protagonist, even if we do recoil at what’s happening to him. Overall, The Vigil is a modest entry into the horror canon, chiefly of interest because of its fresh perspective, while providing an auspicious start to Thomas’s feature career.

• Director: Keith Thomas
• Starring: Dave Davis, Menashe Lustig, Malky Goldman, Lynn Cohen
• Release date: July 31
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‘The Vigil’ Review: What Could Go Wrong Watching Over the Dead?

Money pulls in a night watcher, but a malicious spirit gets into his head in this feature debut from Keith Thomas.

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By Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

It is Jewish tradition to have someone watch over the dead until they are buried. That person is called a shomer. Yakov (Dave Davis), a young Jewish man who has left behind a strictly Jewish-observant life, is pulled into last-minute night-watch shomer duty. He’s reluctant but could desperately use the $400 that he is promised. What could go wrong with just a few hours spent next to a dead body, anyway?

So much. Keith Thomas’s slim but effective “The Vigil” milks terror from a minimalistic setup, relying on the shapes we make out with squinted eyes in the shadows. Yakov’s shift comes with ample warning: The shomer before him dropped out for mysterious reasons. Then there’s the widow, Mrs. Litvak (the late Lynn Cohen , in one of her final roles), who pleads with Yakov, upon his arrival, “to leave now.” Thomas is clever to leave Yakov just vulnerable enough to stay.

Also feeding on Yakov’s vulnerability is a Mazzik, a malicious spirit of Jewish folklore, looking for a new host. It manipulates a painful memory from Yakov’s past. He wonders whether he’s imagining things because of a side effect of medication he most likely takes to cope with trauma from his past.

Thomas’s missteps occur when he strays from his simple formula. The minuscule flinch of the dead body is far more spine-tingling than the cacophonous chaos that later ensues. The unique premise marries Old World traditions and Holocaust history with present-day Hasidic Brooklyn, but the addition of technological elements is hit or miss. The Mazzik overriding Yakov’s smartphone communication is clever, but the film could have done without Yakov killing time during the vigil by Googling, “How to talk to women.” (Period included.)

The Vigil Rated PG-13 for the things that go bump in the night. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV , Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.

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Common Sense Media Review

Supernatural horror has strong threat and language.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Vigil is a horror movie with strong threat throughout and frightening supernatural occurrences. The story revolves around Yakov (Dave Davis), who takes a job as a shomer for a recently deceased member of the Hasidic Jewish community, watching over his body until burial. Death is…

Why Age 14+?

Repeated flashbacks include a character being forced to shoot another and a youn

Occasional use of language includes "a--hole," and derogatory terms such as "Jew

Character takes prescription pills.

Any Positive Content?

A central theme is the power of memories and the importance of working through p

Yakov is haunted by his past, but shows strength in character, especially when f

Violence & Scariness

Repeated flashbacks include a character being forced to shoot another and a young person being attacked and hit by a car. Death is mentioned frequently and a dead body is seen beneath a sheet. Characters fall down steps and are knocked unconscious, cut their hand on glass resulting in bloody cuts, and are set alight. Bones are seen to twist and crunch and something living is pulled from a character's mouth in body horror scenes. Strong threat is maintained for most of the movie, with flashes of demonic figures and ghostly apparitions seen. Reference is made to the Holocaust.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Occasional use of language includes "a--hole," and derogatory terms such as "Jewboy" and "goy."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

A central theme is the power of memories and the importance of working through pain. Courage and empathy are also displayed.

Positive Role Models

Yakov is haunted by his past, but shows strength in character, especially when facing pressure to return to the Hasidic Jewish community. He is considered trustworthy by those around him and shows concern for both an elderly lady and the soul of her dead husband as he acts as shomer, watching over the body until dawn. Reference to Alzheimer's and mental health issues.

Parents need to know that The Vigil is a horror movie with strong threat throughout and frightening supernatural occurrences. The story revolves around Yakov (Dave Davis), who takes a job as a shomer for a recently deceased member of the Hasidic Jewish community, watching over his body until burial. Death is mentioned frequently and the covered body is in shot for much of the film. There are several disturbing instances of body horror -- such as when a living thing is pulled from someone's mouth -- and flashbacks where characters are injured and die. The Holocaust is referenced, and mention is made of Alzheimer's, and mental health issues with one character subsequently taking prescribed pills. Some language includes "a--hole" and discriminatory terms that may offend both the Jewish and non-Jewish community. Some lines are spoken in Yiddish and Hebrew, and are subtitled, although readings from scriptures are not. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In THE VIGIL, having recently left the Hasidic Jewish community, Yakov (Dave Davis) agrees to return to keep vigil over a body for the night in order to make some much-needed money. As strange occurrences begin to take place and disturbing memories flood his mind, Yakov must journey into his own past, and that of the recently deceased, to confront personal and collective demons.

Is It Any Good?

While Christian mysticism has been mined relentlessly in the horror genre, basing a movie so completely in Jewish superstition is relatively new territory. In his first feature film, The Vigil 's writer-director Keith Thomas creates an authentic setting for Davis' strong central performance to shine, maintaining a masterful naturalism while pushing the horror to just the right level.

The scares themselves are generic but well executed, all flickering lights and things that go bump in the night, with some more techno-horror thrown in for the FaceTime generation. The demon itself -- the dybbuk, with its backwards facing head and desire to feed off others' pain -- is used cleverly to represent the past and both Yakov's individual pain and the collective, historical trauma of the Jewish community. Its refusal to let Yakov leave the house drawing parallels to being unable to move on from the past or perhaps Yakov's own struggle to fully cut ties with his Hasidic roots. The stillness of the camera, tight framing, and moments of extended silence ramp up the tension, with the covered body looming in almost every shot as though biding its time. Well-crafted and strong on the psychological elements -- thanks as much to Thomas' writing as Davis' portrayal -- this is a solid horror with some interesting subtext.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the horror elements of The Vigil . Was the movie scary? Which scenes did you find most scary? What's the appeal of scary movies ?

Discuss some of the language used in the movie. Did it seem necessary or excessive? What did it contribute to the plot?

What role did the past play in the story? How was it shown to be important to the present?

What were some of the techniques used to create tension? Have you seen these used in other movies?

Movie Details

• In theaters : February 26, 2021
• On DVD or streaming : February 26, 2021
• Cast : Dave Davis , Menashe Lustig , Malky Goldman
• Director : Keith Thomas
• Studio : IFC Midnight
• Genre : Horror
• Topics : History
• Character Strengths : Courage , Empathy
• Run time : 89 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : terror, some disturbing/violent images, thematic elements and brief strong language
• Last updated : October 8, 2022

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‘the vigil’: film review | tiff 2019.

Writer-director Keith Thomas’ feature debut, 'The Vigil,' is a horror movie set in the Orthodox Jewish community of Brooklyn.

By Jordan Mintzer

Jordan Mintzer

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Get out your tallit, your tefillin and your terrifying visions of a diabolical entity twisting your body into a pretzel, because The Exorcist is coming to Borough Park.

Such is the unorthodox (or is that Orthodox?) premise of The Vigil , a devilish, and very Yiddish, bone-crunching chiller set in Brooklyn’s premier Hasidic neighborhood.

The Bottom Line Oy gevalt!

Written and directed by first-timer Keith Thomas, the film spends one frightful night with Yakov (the excellent Dave Davis), a young man who recently quit the sectarian Jewish community but gets pulled back in to serve as a shomer , watching over a dead body until it gets taken off for burial. Suffice to say this was a bad idea, as Yakov has to contend with a dybbuk (Yiddish for evil spirit) who haunts his every waking minute, as well as his nightmares, with an onslaught of grisly shock-horror scares.

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Following the low-budget Blumhouse formula of one location plus one monster that you hardly ever see (a formula Jason Blum borrowed from the likes of RKO producer Val Lewton), Thomas displays an ample skill set for making us jump out of our seats at opportune moments, although he tends to overdo it on the tympanum-busting sound effects. More intriguing is how he chose to set his film in such a specific milieu, with the actors switching between English and Yiddish, and multiple references to the Torah, the Talmud and the Holocaust that give the story a unique cultural grounding.

Premiering in TIFF’s Midnight Madness section, The Vigil has the chops and the craft — kudos especially go to cinematographer Zach Kuperstein ( The Climb ) for his exquisitely shadowed lighting — to get bar mitzvahed beyond the fest circuit, where it could find both limited theatrical release and a prolonged afterlife on streaming sites.

A brief intro shows Yakov sitting in a support group with other people who have given up on Orthodox Judaism. (Such groups were featured in the 2017 documentary One of Us .) On the way out, he meets a cousin (Menashe Lustig from the indie drama Menashe , which was set in the same neighborhood) who offers him a few hundred bucks to hold vigil at the home of Mrs. Litvak (Lynn Cohen) — a women stricken with Alzheimer’s whose husband, a Holocaust survivor, passed away earlier in the day.

'Color Out of Space': Film Review | TIFF 2019

The stage is thus set for a long night of mayhem, with Yakov stuck in a cramped living room furnished with giant lamps, yellowing wallpaper — production designer Liz Toonkel gets these details just right — and a dead body that starts doing things a dead body shouldn’t. As the terror takes over, Yakov has to fight two demons at once: those haunting the soul of Mr. Litvak and his own inner demons, which were generated by the tragic death of his young brother after the two were bullied by a gang of anti-Semites.

Thomas keeps the tension high throughout most of the movie, even if some of his scare tactics can feel redundant. Just because the devil in The Exorcist twisted limbs and spun heads around, it doesn’t mean this one has to do the same. Or do all Jewish and gentile devils act alike? The director also turns the sound mix up extra high to induce maximum goosebumps, but the result can give you a slight headache.

What works better is how Thomas transforms Orthodox culture into gory material for a slightly elevated horror flick, with Yakov ultimately turning to Hebrew prayer as his only way out of hell. Davis is extremely convincing as a guy who suffers PTSD from his dogmatic upbringing, and who at one point makes a desperate call to his shrink (voiced by Fred Melamed, who memorably played the Sy Ableman character in A Serious Man ) that ends with a frightening twist. Veteran stage and character actor Cohen is also perfectly cast as the creepy Jewish grandmother you don’t want to sit down and have rugelach with.

Production companies: Boulderlight Pictures, Angry Adam Productions Cast: Dave Davis, Lynn Cohen, Menashe Lustig, Malky Goldman, Fred Melamed Director-screenwriter: Keith Thomas Producers: Raphael Margules, J.D. Lifshitz, Adam Margules Executive producer: Daniel Finkelman Director of photography: Zach Kuperstein Production designer: Liz Toonkel Costume designer: Nicole Rauscher Editor: Brett W. Bachman Composer: Michael Yezerski Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Midnight Madness) Sales: CAA

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The Vigil movie review: Amazon scores one of the most underrated horror films in years, sleepless nights await

The vigil movie review: director keith thomas' debut feature is a genuinely well-crafted haunted house film, with a deeper core than you might expect..

One of the best Blumhouse features in years is also the most lowkey. The Vigil, a horror film stamped with a refreshingly unique cultural identity, arrives on Amazon Prime Video after a bafflingly ill-timed theatrical run earlier this year, followed by a pay-per-view debut some weeks later. Third time’s the charm.

The Vigil is basically a foreign language film, based on the Orthodox Jews in New York City. This is an even more insular story about the Jewish community than James Grey's Two Lovers, or the Safdies’ Uncut Gems . To conjure claustrophobia, director Keith Thomas relies less on the haunted house setting and more on the inherent discomfort of being born inside a fringe group.

Watch The Vigil trailer here

We meet our protagonist, Yakov, in a deftly directed opening scene that sets up his inner conflict, and also kicks the plot into motion. Yakov is somewhat of a lapsed Hasidic Jew — a tragic incident in his recent past, it is hinted, sparked a crisis of faith in him. Strapped for cash and barely able to summon the confidence to talk to a girl he has his eye on, Yakov accepts an emergency offer for a rather unsettling gig.

An old acquaintance basically guilt-trips him into accepting the job of a ‘shomer’ — someone who must ‘keep vigil’ over the body of a recently deceased person overnight, protecting it from evil spirits by occasionally reciting holy verses, but mostly, giving their departed souls company. Typically, a ‘shomer’ would be someone from the deceased’s own family, but we are told that Mr Litvak -- the dead guy -- was a bit of a loner. All he’s left behind is a house of horrors and a creepy old wife.

Almost immediately after Yakov arrives at the house, Mrs Litvak issues a chilling warning — leave before it is too late. Brushing her words aside as the ravings of a senile woman, he settles in for the nightlaylist at the ready, a woman to text, and a dead body right next to him. Things begin to get weird.

At first, the scare tactics are basic. Lights begin to flicker, stuff goes ‘creak’ and ‘crash’ in the dark, but Yakov soon realises that something isn’t right. Barely invested in the job, he tries to convince Mrs Litvak to leave with him, and wait for the others to arrive in the morning, as they’d promised. But she refuses. She tells him that she’s been marked by the Mazzik — a malevolent spirit from Jewish mythology — and that chances are, by now, he has too. The Mazzik targets only the ‘broken’, and terrorises them by taking a disturbing deep-dive into their already brittle psyches.

Not only is The Vigil one of the finest horror films in recent years, it is one of the few scary movies to explore Jewish culture, period. The last, if I recall correctly, was the fairly solid (but unimaginatively titled) Sam Raimi production, The Possession, inspired by the creepy urban myth of the haunted Dybbuk Box.

But while that film was a straight-up schlock-fest, The Vigil, in a surprising turn of events, turns out to be a potent drama about Jewish trauma — an inherited infliction that no one from the community, even fence-sitters like Yakov, can evade. Mr Litvak’s Holocaust past is revealed, and the film’s broad allegory about the passing on of generational pain begins to take shape. The Vigil works as a horror movie not only in the traditional sense, but like the best films in the genre, it evokes terror by invading your subconscious, and resisting the urge to bombard you with jump scares.

Also read: His House movie review: Netflix’s unsettling haunted house film unleashes real horrors

Christianity seemingly had this market cornered, but Keith Thomas’ debut feature, steeped as it is in a richly detailed milieu crammed with ancient rituals, is one for the ages. To overcome the horrors of the past, it says, one must first be willing to confront them. And to enjoy real horror films, one must first be willing to watch them.

Director - Keith Thomas

Cast - Dave Davis, Menashe Lustig, Fred Melamed, Lynn Cohen

Follow @htshowbiz for more

The author tweets @RohanNaahar

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‘The Vigil’ review: An atmospheric and lingering horror experience

Keith thomas’s movie is available on bookmyshow stream..

A quintessential low-budget supernatural horror, The Vigil mines Jewish folklore and rituals to create an effective sub-genre experience.

Keith Thomas’s 90-minute film unfolds over one night and largely in a single location. Yakov (an expressive and intense Dave Davis) has been offered a well-paying job: to maintain a vigil for a deceased person until the last rites are performed. The task is usually performed by family members, but in the absence of any, an outsider is hired to fulfill the role.

Yakov is struggling financially and emotionally, and is working through a trauma that has shaken his Jewish faith. Desperate for money, he accepts the task to watch over Litvak’s body. Litvak’s wiry wife (Lynn Cohen) wanders around the house ominously declaring that things are not as they seem.

The five-hour shift is not going to be easy money after all. Yakov begins to see shadowy figures and learns of a demonic figure lurking in the house, waiting to feed off grief and trauma.

Jump scares, the oppressiveness of solitude and metaphors abound in this faith-based horror. The multilingual film questions the real and the imagined, grief and guilt, internal demons and the baggage of the past. Fusion music, moody lighting, visual effects, Davis’s performance and a slow tracking camera create a jittery, atmospheric and lingering horror experience.

• The Vigil movie review
• Keith Thomas

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, mazziks, mezuzahs, and mourning: keith thomas on the vigil and jewish horror.

Though some of the scariest films ever belong to the religious horror canon, from “ The Exorcist ” to “The Omen,” it’s still rare to find horror movies firmly rooted in the Jewish faith. With his feature debut “The Vigil,” writer/director Keith Thomas aims to change that, drawing from a deep well of Jewish mysticism to craft a spine-tingling story of possession, demonology, and haunted heritage. 

Faith is painful for the troubled Yakov ( Dave Davis ), who’s left his Orthodox Hasidic community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, after a personal tragedy. Cash-strapped, he’s unable to refuse when asked to fill in as an overnight shomer, watching over the body of a deceased community elder before burial. Once inside the man’s home, Yakov learns the previously arranged shomer quit suddenly. And as the night continues, he learns why, discovering evidence that a demon known as a mazzik may be haunting the home, feeding on both his fear and that of the deceased.

With the exception of a few features involving a spirit called a dybbuk, Jewish folklore has gone largely unexplored in horror. As if to compensate for this, “The Vigil” is told primarily in Yiddish, delves into the particularities of Jewish grieving rituals, and even swaps out crucifixes for tefillin (black leather boxes containing Torah passages, worn during prayer). Moreover, its throughline of moving through grief speaks both to Yakov’s experiences and the larger burden of a Jewish history tainted by trauma. 

Thomas spoke to RogerEbert.com about making an authentically Jewish horror film and giving tefillin its “ Evil Dead ” moment.

The cultural specificity of “The Vigil” begins with its setting. Why was Brooklyn the right place for this story to unfold?

When I first wrote the screenplay, I thought I could scrape together money for it and make a film on my own. It wasn’t set in Brooklyn. It was still within this community, but not there. But when I teamed with my producers at BoulderLight, they said, “If you’re making a Jewish horror film, it’s gotta be in Brooklyn!” I agreed, and it turned into a much bigger movie than I’d planned to make. Filming in Williamsburg and around Borough Park, you’re going to get noticed, especially when it’s 2:30 in the morning on a Tuesday. It’s not a guerilla-style film. We had a 150-foot dolly track we were riding the camera up and down, and we had a big crew. There was a lot of curiosity, in terms of why we were there. But we went in wanting to respect the community and still be able to tell our story. We walked the line Yakov does, of being someone who’d left the community and had to go back.

“The Vigil” takes place in one home where so many details, from the carpet to the coffee table, speak to a Hasidic household. 

Liz Toonkel , who did the production design, lives in Williamsburg, and she went all in on it. I didn’t know all the things we might need in the house to make it Hasidic, so we had advisors on set. Malky Goldman , who plays Sarah, was one of those advisors. The mezuzahs we got, where we placed them, how we placed them—there’s a lot in there you don’t necessarily see on screen, but if you were to open any of the drawers in any of the rooms, you’d find that place to be authentic. The house itself was a real house in Brooklyn, owned by an elderly Jewish woman who’d passed away a few months before we moved in there. She left behind a number of things that we kept, like the rug, the drapery, and some furniture. 

Dybbuk means “attachment” in Hebrew, but mazzik means “destroyer,” which is markedly more sinister. In developing “The Vigil,” what struck you about the idea of spirits that represent not only attachments to the past but the ways those attachments can do us harm?

It’s horror, so there had to be some entity. Dybbuks felt played out, a golem just wouldn’t work, so what other Jewish monsters are there? Diving into it, I found the mazzik, which like you said translates to “destroyer” in Hebrew. It had no description in the rabbinic literature I found; it was just like, “Don’t go in that house, because there’s a mazzik there,” but literally no description of what it was. I liked that it was obscure. 

At the same time, I knew the themes of the film were going to be about trauma, PTSD, and how a trauma to an individual affects a family, a neighborhood, a community, a people—the ripple effect of that. And specifically Jewish trauma, because we’re in this community. When it came time to envision the un-envisionable, with the mazzik, it was important to me that it embody those themes. The scariest thing isn’t a monster that pops out of the closet; it’s the flesh-and-blood return of your repressed memories. 

“The Vigil” flashes back to pogroms in Kiev, the Holocaust, and an incident on a New York City street corner, all of which conjure the scourge of anti-Semitism. Why was it important for you to make a Jewish film about Jewish pain?

Once I knew I was telling this story in this community in Brooklyn and within Judaism, I knew anti-Semitism would be a big part of it. They say it’s the oldest hatred. What I thought was interesting, almost in a scientific way, was this idea of a demon who feeds on fear. If a Jewish guy is stuck in the house with that, where is it going to pull that fear from? Yakov has his own individual incident, but the mazzik is an ancient thing. It’s just like anti-Semitism itself. It’s plagued these people, because it has a lot to feed on. There have been many incidents. It was important to touch on the Holocaust but also earlier stuff. 

Part of that comes from my own family history. We lost family in the Holocaust, but also in pogroms beforehand. That always struck me as a kid. We conceptualize the Holocaust as this indescribably devastating event, but there were lots of other incidents. In my mind, even in the film, we’re only showing the tiniest moment of the Holocaust through one man’s experience, and it’s just as powerful and destructive as what happens to Yakov’s brother on the street.

Yakov deals not only with survivor’s guilt but with mental illness that has warped his trauma. He’s together in that house with Ms. Litvak (the late Lynn Cohen ), who has dementia. How did you approach the psychology of these unreliable narrators? 

This tortured soul was always going to be the protagonist, put in the crucible of that house. I’ve always been fascinated by trauma and its effects on a personal level, but it’s universal. Fear is crippling for a lot of people. Trauma goes hand-in-hand with that; they’re best friends, those two. You’ve got a guy stuck alone in a house with a body. He’s going to have existential thoughts. For me, the most interesting character is one in full-blown crisis, somebody we join not as things are starting or ending but in the middle. 

As I was writing the script, I thought it’d be important to have some other person, who’d interact with this character who’s having a mental breakdown in some ways but also a breakthrough. I wanted that person to also be unreliable. Before being a filmmaker, I’d been in clinical research, and I did a lot of work in nursing homes. I spent years with folks who had dementia and Alzheimer’s, seeing them as they unraveled. Say there’s one person he can go to in that house, and she’s not all there. 

Lynn was amazing. She brought this huge wealth of experience, as well as her own Jewish background and story. Ms. Litvak, for Lynn, was personal; she played Ms. Litvak as her own grandmother, using the same accent her immigrant grandmother had. She was 86 when we filmed this, and she knew a lot of folks her age suffering from dementia; she had a lot of rich material to pull from and make it personal. I loved the idea Yakov could talk to Ms. Litvak but had no idea if what she was saying was real, or not, or her disease, or supernatural stuff that actually was happening in the house.

You did not go directly into filmmaking out of college, and that your journey along the way included pre-med, rabbinical school, and clinical research. Can you tell me a little about that?

The keyword is “convoluted.” I always have to preface this by saying that all kids dream of being filmmakers. But going off to college, I didn’t see how that could happen for me. I wasn’t going to USC and, even if I was, how many of that school’s graduates actually make movies? I studied academic film in college, but not filmmaking, and then I went into pre-med. After, I went to rabbinical school, where I got a master’s in education. Then, I realized I should have gone to medical school, so I switched gears again and went into clinical research. 

The entire time, I felt this angel or demon on my shoulder. I’ve always been driven, and there was a career drive to become a doctor. But there was also a creative drive, which often felt like subterfuge, derailing my career side. I was getting ready to apply to medical school. I’d taken all the prerequisites and was ready to take the MCAT. And then I wrote a book. [laughs] And it got attention, so I quit.

It was a back-and-forth, and the creative demon won out. By that point, I was in my 40s. Honestly, it was only then I had the confidence to know I could make something. If I’d gone to film school, I think my movies would have sucked. I wasn’t ready. It’s almost like studying Jewish mysticism or Kaballah. They say you have to be over 40 and have a family before you can even try. To take a stab at filmmaking, I had to know who I was enough to do it. And with this story, I was just lucky no one else had done it yet. Other horror films have dealt with dybbuks, but it’s always non-Jews finding the dybbuk box and getting cursed. No one had done it in the Jewish community and gone fully Jewish. Once I found that angle, it was as if I’d been preparing for it my whole life.

Before facing the mazzik, Yakov puts on head-and-arm tefillin. I’ve seen heroes in horror movies grip a crucifix or affix a chainsaw to their arm before facing the big bad, but I’ve never seen tefillin used in this context.

It came from that place close to “Evil Dead II,” with Ash putting that chainsaw on his arm. It’s a classic archetypal scene of facing the thing that frightens you, and everyone loves that drumbeat moment of armoring up. From there, I asked, “Well, what is it? What’s the Jewish version of the priest’s crucifix?” And I realized I’d never seen in a film anyone putting on tefillin, just in general. I asked some rabbis if that was kosher, if you could put on tefillin and face a demon in the hallway, and they were like, “Sure, 100 percent, that’d help!” 

It was a producer’s grandparent’s tefillin we used, and it was very emotional in that room, with Lynn there as well. It was a powerful moment, filming it. And in post-production, when Michael Yezerski brought in the score, I kept telling him to add more and make it louder. It’s now the poster, that scene, but even in filming it we knew, “If any moment works, it’s this one.”

I’m struck by how relatively few Jewish horror films there are. Why do you think that is?

It’s interesting. So many horror filmmakers are Jewish, so why aren’t they making Jewish horror films? I have theories, but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the largest part of the Jewish population in America is not very superstitious. It’s just not a part of their daily experience. It wasn’t one of mine. We don’t have that concept of hell, the devil, and demons being sent up for people’s souls that Christians do. It can feel that supernatural stuff does not apply. 

But at the same time, we have a history that is so horrific, and I could see people not wanting to go into that. It’s already horrible. Why add demons? Once I started digging into it, that lore is pretty rich. The mazzik comes from a very ancient source, and there were plenty of fears of demons around then. It felt like that was the root. In my film, we’re dealing with history and people over generations, so I wanted to bring those old things back, to see how we’d deal with them in modern times. 

From where did you draw inspiration for the film’s scares? 

The moments that I found the scariest, personally, came from nightmares. In one scene, Yakov has a conversation with his psychiatrist on his phone, and there’s this twist; that came directly from a dream I had in high school. I was on the phone with an imaginary girlfriend, pouring out all my emotions, and the person on the other end of the phone was responding as if they were that person and knew my name, and then I suddenly realized I’d called the wrong number. I woke up from that dream with chills, and it’s been sitting with me for 20 years. 

Toward the end, there’s an out-of-focus shot where a form moves downstairs behind Yakov, and it’s unclear whether it’s a rabbi or the mazzik. I realized, either way, it’s not going to let him get away.

[laughs] It’s always tricky how you end these things. We had a moment of catharsis, and then I had this idea of moving through trauma. Even if you look forward and carry on, that trauma is still there, and you can’t remove it fully. You wouldn’t be you if you could. I wanted the mazzik to follow him out of the house, to make it clear he’s gotten through this night but that this thing will still be there, at a distance. At the same time, I didn’t want it on the nose, hence the decision to shoot this figure entirely out of focus, as a blob that’s clearly a person, or something—and clearly in that shape, right? It’s wearing that hat and the coat. You could not know, and I like that it’s ambiguous. If he had followed all the rules of the encounter with the mazzik, as he was supposed to, why would it be following him? If you think through the film, with the video in the basement and why it’s telling him what it’s telling him, there’s a sense that’s perhaps just another one of the mazzik’s games. I also like the idea that, rather than following him for the rest of his life, maybe Yakov just let it out of the house. 

“The Vigil” is in theaters and on VOD Friday .

Isaac Feldberg

Isaac Feldberg is an entertainment journalist currently based in Chicago, who’s been writing professionally for nine years and hopes to stay at it for a few more.

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'The Vigil' movie review: Surprisingly effective small-scare horror

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Director: Keith Thomas

Cast: Dave Davis, Lynn Cohen

Modern Hollywood horror films have one critical flaw: They are all somehow centred on Christian-themed horror and demons, often with unnervingly similar plots. This removes a certain sense of the invasion of personal space, even if the film turns out to be good at the end.

As a result of the monotony of modern horror, The Vigil , which uses Jewish themes and demons, appears as a breath of fresh air.

For a directorial debut, Keith Thomas has crafted an effective horror film, which succeeds at creating a personal connection between the haunted and the haunting entity, while cruising along remarkably smoothly for a film that is not even 2 hours long.

The Vigil follows Yakov Ronen, a Jew with depression and episodes of hallucinations, who is called upon to watch as a Shomer for a recently deceased Holocaust survivor, Litvak. Not even 15 minutes into the film, The Vigil crafts a meticulous introduction for both the characters, of which one is not even alive.

As the night passes on, Yakov, who actually takes up the job reluctantly, learns that something might be haunting the house, despite his misgivings and apprehensions that he is hallucinating. Of course, nothing in a horror movie is that simple, and things quickly take a downward slope for Yakov as his past is slowly dragged out by the demon - a Mazzik - in its twisted attempts to torment him.

Yakov for his part is an oddball of a character. He's somewhat rational, unbelieving in demons and ghouls and the like till it's literally looking him in the face, yet he lacks the attention span - or perhaps the drive - to put 2 and 2 together, preferring to be driven by a mix of hormones and disinterest. This, ironically, makes him a likeable character as his story is revealed by way of confrontations with the Mazzik and the elderly Mrs Litvak, who herself appears cold at first, but grows into something of a motherly person as Yakov trembles under the weight of his past.

The Vigil relies greatly on jump scares and the use of blaring music, which do tend to mar some of the earlier mischiefs of the Mazzik, but around the halfway time, it really comes into its own class with a highly-effective use of third-person exposition from the deceased. From there, the film sees a series of a well-crafted mix of pure horror and disquiet, adding to the overall effectiveness of its gloomy and creepy atmosphere.

Not many horror movies can be effective when confined to the four walls and a basement of a small suburban house. It takes a somewhat more original approach to the use of mythology along with a tight focus on presentation and characters, something that The Vigil scores solid points for. One can only hope for future horror films take such an approach.

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'Stream' Review: 'Saw' Meets 'Death Race' In This Slasher Horror Game Show

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The Big Picture

• Elements of Saw and Death Race make for an interesting slasher game show model.
• The two-hour length and flawed execution are not in the film’s favor.
• Special effects by Terrifer and Terrifier 2 filmmaker Damien Leone are a highlight.

A movie like Michael Leavy’s Stream will always intrigue me as a horror fan . There’s something about the repulsive nature of forbidden internet reaches and social media clout-chasing that maximizes genre commentaries. Scripting reflects the addicting game show vibes in examples from Death Race to Hostel: Part III to Slashers with a dash of Saw . Leavy’s brand of terror exploits marketable violence for the masses, but the problem is, we’ve now seen this streaming massacre model redone a thousand times. You have to compare and contrast what Stream brings to the table, which struggles to be enough.

Stream (2024)

A family’s attempt to reconnect takes a horrific turn when their weekend getaway becomes a nightmare. Trapped in a hotel with four sadistic killers who are locked in a deadly competition to create the most brutal murders, they must fight to survive as the killers unleash their twisted games.

What Is 'Stream' About?

Leavy’s sadistic stalker-killer competition takes place in a hotel hideaway known as The Pines. Roy Keenan ( Charles Edwin Powell ) and his family check in, trying to relive better years when their children weren’t busy amassing streaming followers or getting arrested for alcohol theft. They’re greeted by The Pines’ night manager Mr. Lockwood ( Jeffrey Combs ), right before catching some shut-eye before tomorrow’s busy amusement park plans. Roy’s teenage daughter Taylor ( Sydney Malakeh ) isn’t tired, so she sneaks out with some cute French boys she noticed earlier — and Roy eventually has to locate her with youngest son Kevin ( Wesley Holloway ). It’s while out wandering that Roy notices The Pines has locked all exits, and they’re not the only ones awake — psychotic killers in color-coded masks have claimed the hotel as their hunting grounds .

Stream is what I refer to as a “Body Count” title — something like Terrifier . Characters exist to be slaughtered, often without further development or purpose. We don’t get much backstory behind the roster of killers anonymously known as “Player 1” and so forth, nor does the screenplay’s gaming company dive deeper than users making prop bets to determine which victim dies first, who might survive, or other gross parlays that care not for human life. You’re here to watch Mark Haynes ’ mega-muscly Player 4 collapse skulls with his hands, or to chuckle as David Howard Thornton ’s Player 2 and Liana Pirraglia ’s Player 3 use abdomen flesh to play Tic-tac-toe. Leavy aims for midnighter grotesqueries with a sense of grim humor (on a budget), done a bit better by indie standouts like The Funhouse Massacre .

What evades Leavy is the film’s pacing because there’s not enough foundational ingenuity to sustain two whole hours. Stream doesn’t announce its game’s afoot until seventy-ish minutes into Roy’s vacation nightmare , referring to the film’s duller first half as a “warmup.” We meet other patrons staying at The Pines — stupidly sex-crazed hotties, annoyingly inebriated partiers, moronic drunkards, the works — but Leavy’s not planting emotional seeds that blossom into predictable payoffs. Stream treats its lineup of targets as fodder for bloodletting, which renders all that fluff at the beginning somewhat unnecessary. Leavy never endears us to the Keenans or any other Pines inhabitants, which sucks the wind out of later slasher violence.

'Stream' Is a Horror Movie That Boasts Great Practical Effects

Luckily, Art the Clown creator Damien Leone brings his practical effects expertise to Stream . Once the gore starts gushing, Leone scores highlights involving power drills, arcade joysticks, and plenty of ocular mutilation. You can’t deny the Terrifier and Terrifier 2 levels of bodily abuse, never at either reference point’s pinnacle, but comparative in sleazy vibes. Sick freaks ambush nameless pawns in modded paintball masks with glowy eyes, which becomes a repetitive cycle, but Leone does his darndest to ensure there’s a variety of blunt-force brutality to behold. Leavy throws back to “Golden Age” horror practices that valued over-the-top deaths instead of richly engrossing stories, which if valued on prosthetic severed heads alone, gets the job done. What’s unfortunate is how these movies used to punch in, hack bodies apart, then get out — Stream lingers, and its confidence doesn’t meet execution .

The experience replicates indie horror flicks that boast an all-star cast of genre veterans for bragging rights . Jeffrey Combs is a mainstay as Mr. Lockwood, who anchors the film with an approvably Combs-specific madness—but outside that, expect truncated cameos. Danielle Harris plays Roy’s wife Elaine, doing the best with corny motherhood lines, while Dave Sheridan scores a few quick laughs as The Pines’ bartender and arcade mechanic. Felissa Rose , Dee Wallace , Bill Moseley , or any other marquee names are treated in a Death House manner, which is not a compliment.

Actually, don’t expect magnificent performances from the entire ensemble. You won’t discover any breakout stars in Stream — a diss on tonal languishing and stereotypical arcs . Characters disappear for stretches and reappear after some nobodies turn to butcher’s block cuts, while the narrative construct holding the film together — this underground slasher betting ring with sponsors and everything — is hardly expanded upon. There’s a specific third-act “twist” that had me howling with laughter due to the film’s prior inability to garner empathy for the Keenans as a family trying to reconnect. Leavy’s best intentions clash with his desire to keep executions coming, which is inexcusable at such lengths. Two hours is just too damn long for a “style over substance” feast of fatalities — execution can’t muster much else.

Stream learns the wrong lessons from Terrifier , which is a bummer because the concept has potential. As is, it lacks the foundation to deliver as a standalone — partly because of an ending that’s so clearly gunning for sequel hype. Unfortunately, not enough attention is paid to the spectacular now . Stream meanders, spending too much time saying so little. Quirks aren’t explained, we’re plopped into a scheme without much catchup, and the entire experience is bloated beyond reason. There’s a tighter edit of Stream somewhere, but it ain’t this version, much to my disappointment.

Stream is a sickly sweet piece of horror junk food that might pack enough disgusting practical effects to please gore hounds, but the story itself is underwhelmingly stunted, to the point where style over substance isn't enough to hypnotize horror fans.

• Gimme those gross as heck kills.
• There's a spark of brilliance behind the story.
• Make horror fun and gross again.
• The film is entirely too long for its intentions.
• Kills matter, but little else does.
• It's single-minded to a fault, we need to care about who's dying, not just how many people die.

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‘Strange Darling’ Review: JT Mollner’s Deconstructed Date Night Will Make You Love the Movies Again

Alison foreman.

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A single line — paraphrased by countless pornos but said verbatim at a key turn in “ Strange Darling ” — unlocks the heart of JT Mollner ’s razor-sharp psychosexual thriller.

“I’ve never put it THERE before,” says someone in a scene that shouldn’t be described.

An excruciating chase film , a terrifying puzzle-box whodunit, and a testament to romanticizing even the darkest cinema in glowing 35mm , “Strange Darling” is an outright triumph. That much you can know now, although the following review treads very carefully to avoid spoilers.

Audiences going in with the least knowledge of what you could call a gut-wrenching date night will have the best crack at enjoying this movie in theaters — but there’s more than plot to recommend Magenta Light Studios’ jaw-dropping first feature. Yes, writer/director Mollner’s exacting script is a lean, mean vivisection of humanity’s never-ending hunt for a serial killer. Told nonlinearly, with chapter names signposting its story out of order, “Strange Darling” plays like an even more volatile “Pulp Fiction,” cocaine included.

But it’s also proof that actor Giovanni Ribisi has been hiding out as one of Hollywood’s greatest living cinematographers — a fact laid to bare in some of the most beautiful murders this side of Dario Argento’s “Deep Red.” The main cast further asserts themselves as top talent in the kaleidoscopic world of meta-performance. After a brief black-and-white vignette sets the stage with an instantaneous jump-scare, you’ll meet “The Lady” ( Willa Fitzgerald ) and “The Demon” ( Kyle Gallner ) in an opening sequence that feels ripped from the throat of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

The Demon might not catch up to her yet, but you’ll still feel the breath trapped in your throat as the seething actors and red-on-red shades emanate an angry delirium. Mollner begins his six-parter smack-dab in the middle with “CHAPTER 3: CAN YOU HELP ME? PLEASE?” but the filmmaker clues the audience in on a couple of other things before that. A tightly written crawl says the nightmare you’re about to witness is based on a true story (it’s not) and that it chronicles the last days of an especially sadistic murderer (that part is true… technically ).

Before saying anything of his nightmarish story, Mollner makes a point of including another slate: “SHOT ENTIRELY ON 35MM FILM.” That self-indulgent choice in a horror movie might make some cinephiles scoff, but Ribisi earns the recognition. This isn’t Mollner’s first rodeo — the writer/director made “Outlaws and Angels” before this — and he knows what he’s got. As the tension builds past what even the characters can take, their director wants your eyes open enough to admire what his director of photography has achieved. The lighting and relighting of a single wig in this film deserves its own featurette.

Editor Christopher Bell proves equally essential, assertively reorienting audience perspective with an almost comic relentlessness. Bell’s scalpel-like cuts are meant to screw with your head. That may prove too challenging for some viewers, who will already be high on a supply of arresting violence and original tracks by alt-rock musician Z-Berg. And yet, the dreamy core of “Strange Darling” will push real genre fans forward — finding revelatory relief in comedy so black it could make even a non-smoker want a cigarette.

Electric and unforgettable, “Strange Darling” lives up to its maddening moniker. In a summer movie season that’s been middling at best, this is a must-see — a feat of filmmaking so extraordinary you’ll wonder if it could ever truly be spoiled. You’ve met this man and this woman. You know these tropes and their horrors. But in this exceptionally slippery film, somehow never once losing its traction, you’ve never seen “it” put “ THERE ” before.

From Miramax, Spooky Pictures, and Magenta Light Studios, “Strange Darling” is in theaters August 23.

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'Blink Twice': Luxury getaway turns bloody in Zoë Kravitz’s skillful blend of satire and horror

Striking visuals, smart dialogue distinguish actor’s gonzo directorial debut starring naomi ackie and channing tatum..

A tech billionaire (Channing Tatum) invites a new friend (Naomi Ackie) to his private island in “Blink Twice.”

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Zoë Kravitz’s “Blink Twice” is a radical blend of trippy and unnerving social satire and blood-spattered horror, with Kravitz taking a big swing in her feature directorial debut and connecting with bone-rattling impact. It is a film that takes one big leap after another and sticks the landing far more often than not.

With Kravitz also one of the producers and co-writing the screenplay with E.T. Feigenbaum, “Blink Twice” could be described as “Don’t Worry Darling,” let’s look at “The Menu” and see if there’s a “Glass Onion” and then we’ll “Get Out.”

Kravitz is a showbiz legacy kid who grew up loving movies and has turned in fine work in the “Divergent” and “Fantastic Beasts” series and “The Batman,” as well as TV projects such as “Big Little Lies” and “High Fidelity,” and her love for striking visuals and bold editing, as well as her appreciation for juicy-smart dialogue — it’s all evident here. This is a great-looking film, even when things get memorably, horrifically ugly.

Naomi Ackie is Frida, an aspiring nail designer who is working a gig as a server at a lavish fundraiser when she has a rom-com meet-cute with the dashing and handsome tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), who has been on an Apology Tour and is trying to rehab his image after being “canceled” for unnamed act(s). Claiming to be reformed and turning over a new leaf, Slater has purchased his own private island with a farm-to-table meets “Saltburn” vibe, where he regularly entertains a close circle of friends and associates, so they can get away from it all. When Slater invites Frida to accompany him to the island and Frida’s best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) is allowed to come along, they jump at the opportunity, no questions asked.

That might have been a mistake.

The island features an architecturally striking main property with an expansive outdoor pool and lush greenery, as well as a staff of workers who skulk about in unsettling fashion. There are some early indications all might not be as wonderful as it seems, e.g., all guests must hand over their cell phones, and the women are given matching outfits to wear. When Slater says, “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” you can’t help but wonder: Why would he even say that? Jess cracks to Frida, “So do you think the human sacrifice is before or after dinner?” but it’s just a joke. Promise.

Christian Slater is Vic, Slater’s right-hand man, Simon Rex is Slater’s childhood friend, Cody, who cooks up gourmet meals every night, and Haley Joel Osment is the rather hapless Tom. As the men do male-bonding stuff, the women drink champagne and smoke pot and lounge by the pool, with Frida and Jess joining Adria Arjona’s Sarah, a reality TV star on a show called “Survivor Babes,” as well as Liz Caribel’s Camilla and Trew Mullen’s Heather. Every once in a while, we get an appearance from Geena Davis’ Stacy, who is Slater’s assistant and his sister and is always carrying red gift bags and seems on the verge of a complete meltdown, and Kyle MacLachlan’s Rich, and whatever he’s up to, we don’t trust him.

Adria Arjona plays another island guest, a celebrity from a reality TV show.

As the days and nights of partying blend into one another, the sense of something awful lurking becomes stronger and stronger. One character has a scar, another is missing a finger, and another seems to vanish, and why is there dirt under Frida’s fingernails when she wakes up in the morning? The social satire about toxic men, and women who instantly treat each other as rivals before realizing they’re in this thing together, and the oblivious narcissism of the obscenely rich, gives way to all-out horror in the third act.

Other than one fairly deep plot hole, the gonzo storyline actually makes sense, although the twists come so fast and furious at the end that we need to take a beat to sort it all out as the credits roll. “Blink Twice” makes great use of the terrific cast, with Ackie and Arjona delivering particularly powerful work and Channing turning his natural charm sideways. With this first film, Zoë Kravitz serves notice she is a true talent who is coming for us, and I mean that in the best possible way. I cannot wait to see what she does next.

Screen Rant

I lived through y2k - the new a24 movie's trailer gets a lot wrong about the panic & culture.

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• The Y2K trailer misses the mark on '90s teen culture and the Y2K panic, feeling more like Gen Z actors guessing at the past.
• The movie tries too hard with '90s details like music, hairstyles, and technology, falling short of authenticity.
• Despite being directed by Kyle Mooney and produced by Jonah Hill, Y2K may not capture the true essence of the '90s era.

The trailer for A24's new sci-fi horror-comedy Y2K has dropped, and I don't think it nails the actual culture of the '90s or the end-of-millennium panic caused by the Y2K bug. Co-written and directed by SNL alum Kyle Mooney (his cowriter was Evan Winter), the 1990s-set Y2K trailer imagines a world in which a New Year's Eve house party goes terribly wrong when an exaggerated version of the Y2K bug actually does happen. When midnight strikes, the electronics in the house wake up with a new, murderous intent.

Using the premise of what it might look like had the Y2K bug really come to fruition is an interesting setup. And from the trailer, I do think the simply-titled Y2K could be a lot of fun as a disaster comedy in the vein of This Is The End meets a slasher movie. Even so, the '90s vibes of the movie are completely off, with everything from the hairstyles, to the production design, to how Y2K 's cast of teen characters speak and interact with each other. It's trying, but it just doesn't get the teen culture of the '90s right, and I'd know seeing as how I was a teen in the '90s.

Sidebar here for the 35-and-under crowd: The Y2K bug was a potential problem in the way computers stored information in the ancient days of the 1990s. "Y2K" stood for "Year 2000," a year that, thanks to the limited data storage capabilities of the time, was represented as the 2-digit "00" rather than the 4-digit "2000." The concern was that when the clocks rolled over at midnight on NYE 1999, computers potentially would have not been able to distinguish the year 2000 from 1900, thus crashing software and electronic systems all over the world. Yes, this was a real concern. No, I am not making it up.

Y2K Feels Like Gen Z Actors Trying To Portray Elder Millennials

It's always a problem with young actors playing characters from a decade before they were born.

My first impression upon watching the Y2K trailer was that it seemed fun, but also that it felt like a bunch of Gen Z kids doing their best to replicate the '90s but failing. It's the problem that always happens when actors who were not yet alive in a certain era try to mimic people from that era when the actual people of that era are still around. Little details are off, leading to it feeling less like an immersive experience in a specific decade, but a cheap facsimile. Granted, 2024 is (horrifyingly) 25 years away from then-19-year-old me and memories fade, but certain things in the trailer just aren't accurate.

We used technology in a way that was different than today's Gen Z, so that moment stands out as inauthentic, a younger generation trying to guess how we would have acted and failing because they have no real frame of reference.

The biggest thing that sticks out to me is the way one character yells into what I can only assume is a camcorder about them partying for Y2K. It's just not how we used cameras back then; instead, it feels very Gen Z TikTok-y. Selfies and the modern way of speaking directly to audiences via self-recording just weren't really a thing back then . Had they pulled out a disposable camera, that would have been perfect, but pulling out a camcorder would have gotten you marked as a narc, especially at a house party. We used technology in a way that was different than today's Gen Z, so that moment stands out as inauthentic, a younger generation trying to guess how we would have acted and failing because they have no real frame of reference.

Y2K Review: Julian Dennison Is The Highlight Of A Messy Sci-Fi Horror Comedy That Loses Its Charm

Y2K will surely find an audience, but the nostalgia and a solid premise aren’t enough to make this a memorable watch. 

The '90s Details Are Too Obvious & Also Not Right

"tubthumping" in 1999 please..

The '90s details thrown into the Y2K trailer aren't quite right. For example, we'd all moved on from Chumbawumba's "Tubthumping" by then, as it came out in 1997. Other songs were wildly more popular in the last months of the millennium: "Mambo No. 5" by Lou Bega, "Genie in a Bottle" by Christina Aguilera, or the Latin explosion that took over that year with singers like Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias. To be incredibly accurate, the trailer should have used "Smooth" by Rob Thomas and Carlos Santana. It is impossible to overstate the chokehold that song had on us all at the end of 1999.

'90s flashback: From the week of October 23, 1999 through the week of January 8, 2000, or 12 weeks straight, "Smooth" dominated the Billboard Hot 100. It was finally knocked out of the #1 spot by Christina Aguilera's "What a Girl Wants."

Likewise, the characters are all too clean and too perfectly styled, even when they're trying to seem like they're not. Our decade was the era in which grunge exploded, and 1999 was a year caught squarely in the transition between the griminess of the grunge era and the shiny, futuristic techno-pop of the early 2000s. Kids just didn't look that smooth and tidy back then. The hairstyles were different and more extreme, the clothes more distinct. If you want a good example of a teen house party movie that exaggerates, but still accurately captures the vibe of the era, 1998's Can't Hardly Wait is a good choice:

There are plenty of '90s references thrown into the Y2K trailer, which completely eschews the concept of " show, don't tell ." The movie is telling us – very obviously and explicitly – that this is a '90s movie, set in the '90s, with '90s stuff, and by the way, did it mention it's set in the '90s? From the opening seconds of the AOL dial-up screen, the trailer does its best to tell us that this is a movie set in the 1990s. The problem is that it doesn't actually feel like it.

The Y2K Panic Was Real (But Not For The Movie's Reasons)

In the end, it was a lot of nothing.

Looking back, it seems wild that we were ever worried about the Y2K bug, which will sound objectively insane to anyone under the age of 35. The concern was there, but it wasn't like we were thinking it might be the end of the world – not most of us, anyway. Ultimately, most of us who were teenagers didn't really think the planet would be thrown into chaos – but we wouldn't have taken your bet had you said absolutely nothing would be disrupted.

Don't get me wrong – there were definitely people who were in full-blown panic mode, convinced everything could and would happen, from planes falling out of the sky, to banks accidentally zeroing out bank accounts, to cars crashing into each other, to hospital emergency equipment failing and patients dying. But most of us, especially those of us in our teens and 20s, just thought that, at most, our computer programs might get glitchy. Still, we weren't sure what would happen, and we definitely weren't having house parties that night.

I can tell you what did happen, though: nothing. For all the hype of potential calamity, the Y2K bug passed with not so much as a hiccup, likely thanks to the computer engineers and IT people who had been working overtime the past few months to avert any sort of downtime or software catastrophe. No computers became sentient and no machinery went all Maximum Overdrive on us. And I would know if they had, because I was a cast member at Disney World on New Year's Eve 1999.

We went out thinking we might have to calm panicked parkgoers or restart malfunctioning rides. Instead, my coworkers and I sat with our backs against a brick ledge and stared at the sky while we talked about how bored we were.

I remember they handed us flashlights and whistles and sent us out into the park at ten to midnight, " just in case ." What a bunch of teenagers were supposed to do in the face of potential global meltdown, I don't know. Maybe we could have whistled the Y2K bug to death. We went out thinking we might have to calm panicked parkgoers or restart malfunctioning rides. Instead, my coworkers and I sat with our backs against a brick ledge and stared at the sky while we talked about how bored we were, despite the occasional break of having to give a guest directions. Machines coming to life and trying to kill us was definitely not a concern.

It's Weird Considering It Comes From Kyle Mooney & Jonah Hill

You'd think they'd know better.

The most baffling thing about the off-ness of the Y2K trailer is that SNL alum Kyle Mooney is the writer and director, and Jonah Hill is a producer. As two guys who were teenagers in 1999, they should know what it looked and felt like back then. But with Mooney's influence, maybe that's why it feels like a set piece and a sketch instead of a fully realized idea. The props feel like props; the costumes feel like costumes. Currently, Y2K holds a 63% on Rotten Tomatoes, which seems about right. Hopefully, though, the trailer is misleading and the movie feels a lot more authentically '90s, because right now, it feels like a movie that's trying really, really hard to pretend it knows what Napster is and that it remembers Woodstock '99 , but failing.

On the last night of 1999, two high school juniors crash a New Years Eve party, only to find themselves fighting for their lives in this dial-up disaster comedy.

‘Alien: Romulus’ Review: The Primal Shock and Awe Is Gone, but It’s a Good Video-Game Horror Ride

Cailee Spaeny stars in the seventh entry in the franchise, directed by Fede Álvarez as a nerve-jangling greatest-hits throwback. It works.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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• Will the People Who Say They Love Cinema the Most Come Back to the Movies? 4 days ago
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There’s now a contradiction built into the very idea of a new “ Alien ” sequel. “ Alien: Romulus ” is the seventh entry in the franchise, and each time we line up for another one of them, even when it’s as encrusted with “mythology” as “Prometheus,” the hope is that we’ll get to experience a taste of the shock and awe that “Alien” achieved 45 years ago. “Aliens,” in 1986, conjured enough of that sensation to register as a classic — and though “Alien 3” (1992) is reviled by everyone in the known universe, including its director, David Fincher, I’ve always found, in its maternal-bad-dream-as-art-film way, that it exerts a slow-burn queasy power.

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The space station looks fascinatingly old-fashioned (primitive computer graphics, a cooling system of backlit propeller fans), and it’s not the only thing that does; so do the monsters. The director, Fede Álvarez (“Don’t Breathe,” the “Evil Dead” remake), is a visually brash, dramatically pedestrian showman who stages the alien encounters with a welter of practical effects, which in this retro era tends to get some viewers as excited as a Gen-X hipster cooing over his vinyl collection. Early on, several of the characters explore a passage deck flooded with water, where they encounter things thrashing around them. It’s an army of face-huggers, who are now almost like old friends. (At the screening I attended, rubbery models of them were passed out as PR items, sort of like Leatherface masks.) They don’t seem as powerful as they once did (I don’t remember characters in “Alien” being able to just shake them off), but there is plenty of bony tentacled imagery, and one hugger fastens itself to a crew member, the close-cropped Navarro (Aileen Wu), who soon disgorges a writhing fetus with jaws.

There are other elements there to remind us of “Alien”: a hole burned through layers of the ship, as well as a mangled droid named Rook, played by a digitally reconstituted version of the late Ian Holm (even though his character in “Alien” was named Ash). He looks a bit more svelte than you remember, as if he went on the AI diet — but seriously, if this is what the future of AI re-creation looks like, it’s more off-putting than auspicious. Holm’s monologue in “Alien” was one of the film’s highlights, but “Alien: Romulus” isn’t a thriller where the characters pop in the same way. Several of them have off-puttingly indecipherable British accents, and it’s not as if the script fills them in. But “Priscilla’s” Cailee Spaeny, with her clear eyes and serene resolve, makes her presence felt as Rain, the closest equivalent here to the fearless Ripley.

Rain has brought along a droid of her own named Andy, who tells bad jokes and whom she regards as a spiritual brother. He’s played by David Jonsson with a gentle-voiced ambiguity that’s compelling; when he gets reprogrammed into a company stooge, we realize we miss the old Andy more than we do the characters who are being killed off. There’s a disturbing half-formed alien that looks more vaginal than anything we’ve seen in the franchise, as well as an elevator shaft lined with the obsidian exoskeletons of live alien bodies. In a terrific sequence set in an anti-gravity zone, Rain lays waste to this monster army with a mega machine gun, leaving yellow acid blood hanging in blotches in the air.

Reviewed at AMC Empire, New York, Aug. 12, 2024. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 118 MIN.

• Production: A 20th Century Studios release of a Scott Free Productions, Brandywine Productions production. Producers: Ridley Scott, Michael Pruss, Walter Hill. Executive producers: Fede Alvarez, Elizabeth Cantillon, Brent O’Connor, Tom Moran.
• Crew: Director: Fede Álvarez. Screenplay: Fede Álvarez, Rodo Sayagues. Camera: Galo Olivares. Editor: Jake Roberts. Music: Benjamin Wallfisch.
• With: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn Aileen Wu.

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The #1 New Movie on Prime Video Is A Horror Film Stephen King “Loved” – Compared It To Early Steven Spielberg

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The haunted pool film Night Swim perfectly exemplifies safe, mid-budget horror fare. Let’s just say that the title wasn’t exactly a hit with the majority of critics or moviegoers. Still, it pulled in roughly four times its estimated budget of $15 million at the global box office for a grand total of just over $54 million. It’s currently the #1 horror film on Prime Video and the most-viewed new title on the platform this week, sitting smugly at #3. That’s no small splash.

And while most critics snubbed the pool party, horror hero Stephen King quite enjoyed this oft-maligned flick, for one. He even told Twitter/X: “I loved THE NIGHT SWIM (Amazon Prime). It’s like a lost, low-budget Steven Spielberg film from Spielberg’s early period…say, after DUEL but before JAWS. Simple story, but…the cat on the diving board! And those creepy bunny slippers!”

Take a Dip on Prime Video

The flick was a January release, a time of year when studios are rumored to dump their less-than-Oscar-worthy fare. So, one gets the impression Universal might have had tempered expectations for the title. Alas, a decent box office return, success on streaming platforms, and an endorsement from a best-selling horror author suggest there was an audience for this sleeper hit.

If you think you may be part of the picture’s target demographic, you can head over to Prime Video and give it a look now.

Also Read: This Lost Stephen King Novel Was Pulled from Circulation for This Tragic Reason

The film’s storyline goes like this: Forced into early retirement by a degenerative illness, former baseball player Ray Waller moves into a new house with his wife and two children. He hopes that the backyard swimming pool will be fun for the kids and provide physical therapy for himself. However, a dark secret from the home’s past soon unleashes a malevolent force that drags the family into the depths of inescapable terror.

That’s all we’ve got at present. Keep an eye out for more streaming recommendations in the near future. Also, be sure to follow @DreadCentral on Twitter so you never miss one of our updates.

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