The Vigil (Movie Review)

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.