6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A man providing overnight watch to a deceased member of his former Orthodox Jewish community finds himself opposite a malevolent entity.
Starring: Dave Davis, Lynn Cohen, Fred MelamedHorror | 100% |
Supernatural | 20% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
“The Vigil” tracks the experiences of a shomer hired to watch over the body of a recently deceased man. The production explains what a shomer is at the beginning of the movie, helping those unfamiliar with Orthodox Jewish rituals to better understand the position, which carries immense importance when protecting the dead from evil spirits looking to claim them. There’s a distinct religious angle to writer/director Keith Thomas’s picture, but there’s just as much pure genre filmmaking in play. “The Vigil” is a ghost story, exploring spooky encounters and darkly lit rooms, and it’s a highly effective one, well-crafted on a low budget. Thomas wants a little more from the event than simple frights, weaving in elements of guilt and shame to supercharge the haunting that brings the lead character to the edge of sanity.
Daylight is almost nonexistent in "The Vigil," which takes place primarily at night and inside a small apartment. Darkness is the theme here, with the AVC encoded image (2.39:1 aspect ratio) presentation doing well with delineation, finding nothing lost to solidification. The production is focused on shadowy encounters in black spaces, but frame particulars remain present. Detail primarily deals with the Yakov's facial surfaces and decaying elements of the living space, which register as intended. Costuming is fibrous and decoration is open for study. Colors are limited, but glowing greens from phone displays and interior lighting are distinct, along with warmer offerings from lamps around the body. Skintones are natural. Some artifacting is present, most notably during the film's finale, which uses limited sources of light.
The 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix provides requisite creepiness, offering compelling surround activity with strange movement and thumping inside the apartment. Shocks also come through with circular intensity. Dialogue exchanges are sharp, with crisp enunciation and accents. Music supports as needed. Sound effects are key to the listening experience, and creaks and cracks are clear, offering a pronounced presence on the track. Low-end isn't challenged, with some heavier hits during acts of violence.
Thomas works with genre expectations in "The Vigil," sending Yakov into the dark to figure out what's going on. He can't leave the home due to physical pain, and attempts to reach the outside world through his phone are disrupted by the elusive enemy. There are a lot of creepy encounters in the picture, which Thomas executes superbly despite some obvious budget limitations. Panic is helped along by Davis, who gives a sensational performance as Yakov, carrying the movie with his intensity, and he also clarifies the character's crisis of faith and guardianship, giving the feature some gut-punch emotion to help it rise above the genre norm. "The Vigil" doesn't provide a rowdy viewing experience, but it delivers requisite unease with a distinct cultural point of view, reaching beyond simple scares to find terror of a different, more intimate kind.
2016
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