The Vigil

The Vigil follows Dave Davis’ Yakov as he agrees to watch over a recently-deceased corpse overnight, with the movie detailing the spooky happenings that inevitably occur as the evening goes on. Filmmaker Keith Thomas does a superb job of initially establishing the movie’s eerie atmosphere, as The Vigil boasts an impressively gripping opening half hour that’s heightened by creepy visuals and a seriously ominous score. And although Thomas certainly gets plenty of mileage out of the creepy-old-house narrative, The Vigil lamentably progresses into an increasingly ineffective midsection that’s chockablock with cheap jump scares (ie so many loud noises) – which slowly-but-surely, when combined with the is-this-all-happening-or-is-it-just-in-Yakov’s-head vibe, drains the proceedings of its intensity and spookiness. The over-the-top climax is subsequently unable to pack the visceral punch that Thomas has obviously intended, and it does seem, in the final analysis, that The Vigil would’ve worked a whole lot better as an installment in a horror-anthology film.

** out of ****