‘The Vigil’ Tightens Suspense (And Phylacteries) With Teaser For Jewish Horror Flick

Jewish horror movies are pretty hard to come by these days, but Baruch Hashem for writer-director Keith Thomas. The filmmaker (recently tapped to helm an upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s Firestarter) will help fill out the woefully underpopulated sub-genre with The Vigil. Drawing on centuries-old tenets of Jewish folklore and mysticism, the upcoming film dropped a teaser trailer that turns the Kaddish — a Hebrew prayer for mourners — into a hair-raising refrain.

Set in Borough Park, a particularly religious area of Brooklyn, The Vigil stars Dave Davies as Yakov, a man struggling with his faith. When his former rabbi (Menashe Lustig) asks him to be a shomer and watch over a dead body for one night, Yakov reluctantly accepts, unwittingly finding himself the target of a supernatural force.

“I hope you find something in our little story that haunts you, that burrows like a splinter in your consciousness and leaves you thinking. Even if it’s just for a few heartbeats,” Thomas said in a statement.

Watch the teaser below:

“All of us have suffered ‘dark nights of the soul’ (likely several times over during the upheaval of the past year) and most of us emerge from those lean and often frightening hours changed – generally for the better but sometimes for the worse,” Thomas added in his statement. “If you’ve come to the movie for a thrill, I hope you enjoy it and it troubles your sleep. If you’ve come to it for a glimpse into a cloistered world few secular people know, I’ll assure you that it is authentic.”

During a one-on-one phone interview with me last year, the director admitted that the realm of Jewish horror needs a lot more content.

“It’s kind of neglected,” he said. “The truth is Jews, or at least Jewish religiosity, don’t lend themselves to horror films that well. Because of the structure, there aren’t that many evil spirits and demons to pull from and most modern Jews don’t necessarily believe in them,” he explained. “You kind of have to go into more observant communities to find folks who will believe in dybbuks and these sorts of things. But I do think it’s an untapped well.”

The late Lynn Cohen (Munich) fills out the project’s cast as Mrs. Litvak.

Rated PG-13, The Vigil heads to select theaters and onto digital/VOD platforms Feb. 26, 2021. IFC will distribute the movie after acquiring the rights from Blumhouse.