Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Vigil’ on VOD, a Freaky Horror Story About a Jewish Man and the Demons of His Faith

New on VOD, The Vigil freshens a familiar premise by taking the familiar tropes of haunted house and/or exorcism thrillers and transplanting them into Jewish mythology. Demons of said faith aren’t at all common among the Pazuzus and draggers-to-hell we tend to see in movies, although I recall something about a dybbuk in A Serious Man, which frankly might be one of the most terrifying films I’ve ever seen. Anyway, The Vigil director Keith Thomas seems to be exhibiting some ambition with his debut, which makes it worthy of a look, especially compared to the bevy of generic horror fodder clogging the streaming scene.

THE VIGIL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Yacov Ronen (Dave Davis) has been struggling to acclimate into secular society. He sits in group therapy with several other former Hasidic Jews, who share their experiences and struggles as an act of support. They split hairs out of necessity: You may have “left” the religion, but are you “moving forward”? Did the fundamentalist leaders “protect” you from the outside world, or did they “keep” you from it? Yacov is unsure of himself. He can’t find a job; sometimes he has to choose buying medication over meals. He says he’d love to take classes on basic living so he can be “normal.” Sarah (Malky Goldman) clearly has been out longer, and speaks as if she was freed from a cult. She offers kindness, asks Yacov to get coffee with her sometime. She has to input her number into his phone for him. He’s still not used to it.

The group moderator has called the police before on Reb Shulem (Menashe Lustig), a Hasidic elder. He hovers outside the door after the meeting, waiting for Yacov. Reb desperately needs a shomer — someone to watch over the deceased and protect the soul from any hungry lurking evil things — for a recently passed Holocaust survivor. It’s an overnight gig. Seems sketchy, especially after learning the first shomer bailed at the last minute, but Yacov desperately needs the money. They agree on $400, then we’re decked by ominous tones on the soundtrack, which tells us this won’t be easy money.

The late Mr. Litvak lies beneath a sheet in the front room of his home. Yacov takes a seat nearby, responds to texts from Sarah, dozes off, has a nightmare that might be a flashback. The widow, Mrs. Litvak (Lynn Cohen), comes downstairs. Reb said she has Alzheimer’s, but she seems pretty lucid. She tells Yacov to get out of here before the mazzik gets him. The mazzik? Yeah, the mazzik. A demon that feeds on psychic trauma, just like what Yacov experienced with his little brother, a scene we witness in the nightmare-flashback, and maybe explains the medication and rejection of Hasidic ways.

So about this mazzik. It makes bumpity-draggy noises upstairs, breaks light bulbs, manifests in shadows. We get a long, lingering close-up on the body under the sheet, and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t twitch. A large spider skitters by Yacov’s foot. Is that a pair of coal-black feet scraping a toenail lugubriously on the kitchen tile, or is he seeing things? He gets a drink of water, and gags on a thick, oily substance. Sometimes he moves, and his body makes that CRACKITY BONES sound, you know, the one that sounds like 2,000 arthritic knuckles all popping at once. Mrs. Litvak re-emerges to tell him she told him so. But isn’t she ill? And isn’t Yacov ill too? Is he gaslighting himself? Why will no one flip a damn lightswitch around here? Because it’d ruin the atmosphere, silly.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Vigil skulks somewhere in the ether between The Exorcist and The Babadook, skewing a little more towards the latter. Is this intended to be flattery? I think so!

Performance Worth Watching: Davis makes the most of a character who seems minimalist by design. He keenly concentrates Yacov’s trauma into a memorable portrayal of a man in the grip of raw fear while confronting a demon, and maybe his own demon, too.

Memorable Dialogue: “Is his head turned backwards? Can you tell me, Yacov? Is his head turned around?” — I’m not sure Yacov’s psychotherapist is helping him out much here

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Nope, $400 wasn’t enough. Thomas makes remarkable use of one primary location and its multitude of dark, shadowy depths; in the dark, it’s a surreally endless place with a basement you don’t want to see and an upstairs hall you’ll never want to visit and a rest of it that isn’t much fun either. Our first decent glimpse of it is a distorted wide-angle shot communicating Yacov’s disorientation, which only gets worse. Do the laws of physics apply here? I think not, especially since ghosts and demons tend to disregard them, and nourish themselves with ethereal things. “It wants your pain,” Mrs. Litvak says to Yacov. Well, it can have it, is what he should say. Pain sucks.

I make light of The Vigil to diffuse some of the tension it effectively inflates. Thomas tends to lean on jump scares and CRACKITY BONES sounds and the type of thrumming score that sounds like 2,000 headaches all at once, but it all works. The ambience is eerie, suggestive and provocative, and the filmmaker skillfully generates suspense to the point where the balloon’s gotta pop, and we’re gonna jump. Davis carries the considerable weight of the film’s terror wholly on his back; without his performance, the movie might be yet another flimsy exercise in manipulation. Thematically, Thomas roots both Mr. Litvak and Yacov’s trauma within specific elements of the greater Jewish character, but never deviates into exploitation; there’s no cliches about lost faith here, the film instead exploring the potential for a third option for Yacov beyond orthodoxy and strict secularism. Thomas is earnest about what he wants to say. He’s also earnest in his attempts to freak us out.

Our Call: STREAM IT. For a things-that-go-bump movie, The Vigil is smart, resourceful and surprisingly good.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Where to stream The Vigil