The Vigil: Chilling Jewish folklore proves Catholics don't have a monopoly on religious-based horror

By Thom Ernst

Rating: B-plus

Most of what I know about Jewish folklore comes from horror movies. It may not be the most accurate way to be informed, but it can be entertaining. 

I learned of the golem from The Limehouse Golem (2016), and every golem-related film leading up to it, about dybbuks from the movie The Possession (2012), and (shamefully) I first learned about the Star of David at the age of 11 because of a sight gag involving a Jewish vampire in Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967). 

Dave Davis plays a young man whose stint as a shomer - a companion of the deceased - goes horribly wrong.

Now, in director/writer Keith Thomas's film, The Vigil, I learned of a shomer's role, an appointee hired to sit with the recently deceased so that evil spirits don't make off with the body. It seems a solid tradition regardless of your faith and one ripe for a decent horror film. 

Unlike many religious-inspired movies, The Vigil does not rely on pulpit-pounding scare tactics. Thomas's film has more in common with The Exorcist (1973) than with the kind of conversion horror that drives faith-based thrillers like Left Behind (2000), a movie miraculous only in that it inspired a more commercial remake in 2014 starring Nicolas Cage.   

The Vigil  touches on lost faith and redemption themes—how can a film steeped in spiritual conventions not be about redemption? But Thomas's strength is not in building on a foundation of belief, but in breaking down the walls of doubt. It helps that the film's central character, Yakov Ronen (Dave Davis), begins in a deep stage of disbelief. He’s someone who would sooner question his sanity than entertain the possibility that demons are real. 

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

Ronen is a disillusioned Hasidic Jew attempting to navigate the customs of his newly adopted Brooklyn home. He is a man in recovery who gravely underestimates the cause and depth of his pain. He believes the cure to his suffering is to abandon his faith, land a decent-paying job, and perhaps find romance. 

But there is no redemption in the audiobooks on how to meet women or in any job-finding workshop.  Redemption, if there is to be any, waits at the end of a terrifying, grueling night. 

After leaving a support group for lapsed believers, Ronen is confronted by his former spiritual advisor Reb Shulem (Menashe Lustig).  Shulem has been dogging Ronen like gin dogs an alcoholic. Shulem can't secure a shomer for a five-hour stint at a local residence. 

Ronen, strapped for cash and with no other plans, agrees. The deceased's widow, Mrs. Litvak (the late Lynn Cohen), a frail, unwelcoming woman, has a fierce reaction to Ronen as if offended by his youth and vulnerability. But with no other options, Mrs. Litvak resigns to Ronen's presence. Ronen is left alone, earbuds plugged in, his back turned to the shrouded corpse. 

And then the tension begins, uncompromised by the now-standard use of text messages appearing on the screen.

What The Vigil does very well is box its players (mostly, but not exclusively Ronen) in a room devoid of life. Thomas creates not just the solemn aura of being in the deceased's presence, but of having crossed a threshold where there is no return. The room is coloured in saturated hues of green and orange, distancing the audience further from the deceptively bland exterior, an ordinary rowhouse on an unexceptional street.

The Vigil fits comfortably into the psychological horror genre. However, the term “psychological horror” can be a misleading distraction to horror fans who interpret the meaning as staid and potentially dull. The Vigil is far from dull. Neither does it play coy with being anything other than a horror film. 

But just as The Exorcist can be a powerful film about personal conviction, The Vigil can be a powerful testament to the scars left by war-time atrocities and contemporary hate-crimes. 

The Vigil  is a satisfying work of suspense and mystery with a few well-executed jump scares. 

The Vigil is Keith Thomas's debut feature, but a second film is already in the works; a remake of Stephen King’s Firestarter, starring Michael Greyeyes (Blood Quantum) as John Rainbird, a role formerly held in the 1984 original by non-indigenous actor, George C. Scott. 

Click HERE to watch Bonnie Laufer’s Q&A with The Vigil star Dave Davis.

The Vigil  is directed by Keith Thomas and stars Dave Davis, Lynn Cohen, and Menashe Lustig.  The Vigil opens in selected theatres and on VOD February 26, 2021.