Premiering at last year’s TIFF in its Midnight Madness section, Keith Thomas’ horror feature The Vigil takes place over the course of a single evening in Brooklyn’s Hasidic Borough Park neighborhood. Starring Dave Davis, Menashe Lustig and Lynn Cohen, we follow an overnight “shomer,” the Jewish practice of watching over the body of a deceased community member, though with a supernatural twist. Ahead of a February release, and timed with the first night of Hanukkah, IFC Midnight has now debuted the first trailer.
C.J. Prince said in our TIFF review, “If there’s anything going for The Vigil, it’s the setting. Aside from the title cards at the start, Thomas doesn’t spend much time giving exposition about the community he’s focusing on, which works to the film’s benefit for the most part. But no matter how much cultural specificity one can put in their film, it doesn’t mean much if the direction is too broad. The Vigil undermines its own stakes through a punishing sound design, lack of actual frights, and a reductive character arc.”
See the trailer below.
The Vigil opens in select theaters, digital platforms, and VOD on February 26.