critics consensus

Consistently clever and creepy, The Vigil mines richly atmospheric supernatural horror from a deep well of religious traditions. Read critic reviews

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Movie Info

Steeped in ancient Jewish lore and demonology, THE VIGIL is a supernatural horror film set over the course of a single evening in Brooklyn's Hasidic Borough Park neighborhood. Low on funds and having recently left his insular religious community, Yakov reluctantly accepts an offer from his former rabbi and confidante to take on the responsibility of an overnight "shomer," fulfilling the Jewish practice of watching over the body of a deceased community member. Shortly after arriving at the recently departed's dilapidated house to sit the vigil, Yakov begins to realize that something is very, very wrong.

Rating:

PG-13 (Terror|Some Disturbing/Violent Images|Brief Strong Language|Thematic Elements)
Genre:

mystery and thriller, horror
Original Language:

English
Director:

Keith Thomas
Producer:

J.D. Lifshitz, Adam Margules, Raphael Margules
Writer:

Keith Thomas
Release Date (Theaters):

Feb 26, 2021 limited
Release Date (Streaming):

Feb 26, 2021
Box Office (Gross USA):

$23.2K
Runtime:

1h 30m
Production Co:

Blumhouse Productions, BoulderLight Pictures
Aspect Ratio:

Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

Dave Davis
Yakov Ronen

Fred Melamed
Dr. Kohlberg

Menashe Lustig
Reb Shulem

Malky Goldman
Sarah

Lynn Cohen
Mrs. Litvak

Nati Rabinowitz
Lane

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Critic Reviews for The Vigil

All Critics (95) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (85) | Rotten (10)

There is a touching human dimension to this tale that brought tears to my eyes.

February 28, 2021 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Sara Michelle Fetters
MovieFreak.com
Cannily filters its suspense through the prism of personal-and inherited-Jewish trauma.

February 27, 2021 | Full Review…

Nick Schager
The Daily Beast
The Vigil is a sophisticated and scary film, smartly executed.

February 26, 2021 | Full Review…

Kristy Puchko
The Playlist
An intriguing stab at modern Hasidic horror (we smell a burgeoning subgenre).

February 26, 2021 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

David Fear
Rolling Stone
This sort of paint-by-numbers horror narrative barely scratches the surface of the heavy issues it alludes to.

February 26, 2021 | Rating: 1.5/4 | Full Review…

Simon Abrams
RogerEbert.com
It is smart enough, scary enough and unique enough to be worth a watch both for horror fans and for people who want to see more Jewish culture represented on the screen.

February 26, 2021 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Matthew Rozsa
Salon.com
While The Vigil may not be the scariest horror film you'll see this year...it is worth your time for the care it has for its characters, and Dave Davis more than holds his own.

March 5, 2021 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Rhys Bowen Jones
Jump Cut
The Vigil is simply conceived, pretty much limited to one gloomy interior, and reliant on jump scares. It's nothing amazing, yet it is indeed very creepy, with an atmosphere of slow-building dread that duly gets under your skin.

March 5, 2021 | Full Review…

Dennis Harvey
48 Hills
Davis manages to convey Yakov's long dark night of the soul with little more to play off of than the draped corpse and his cell phone.

March 4, 2021 | Rating: 2.5/5 | Full Review…

Daniel M. Kimmel
North Shore Movies
The Vigil is a beautiful film about grief that is as powerful as it is frightening.

March 3, 2021 | Rating: 8.5/10 | Full Review…

Molly Henery
The Blogging Banshee
Part haunted house, part tech thriller, and entirely grounded by Dave Davis' harrowing performance, the film never loses sight of questions of cultural identity, and the ways it intersects with personal and collective trauma.

March 2, 2021 | Rating: 9/10 | Full Review…

Siddhant Adlakha
IGN Movies
The secret to writer-director Keith Thomas' wonderfully creepy debut feature lies in its chilly, self-contained intimacy.

March 2, 2021 | Rating: B | Full Review…

Andrew Wyatt
The Lens

View All Critic Reviews (95)

Audience Reviews for The Vigil

3d ago

A tight atmospheric horror thriller, refreshingly based on orthodox Jewish traditions vs. the usual Christian religious tropes. Seriously, we need more non-Catholic/Christian horror movies -- that vein has been tapped to death. It seems there is so much interesting lore in Judaism (e.g. The Golem) as well as other major religions (Hindhu, Islam, etc.) which thankfully we are starting to see (Under the Shadow, Tumbbad, etc.). With vibes of Oculus and 1408, the fantastic score seriously elevates the movie.

Mark B Super Reviewer