New Movie Review: The Vigil

When you think of demon movies, what comes to mind?  For me, it's crosses, priests, and holy water, and I bet most people would give similar answers.  That trio is a staple of the demon subgenre of horror, and for good reason.  The overwhelmingly vast majority of demon films are based in Christianity, so it makes perfect sense that they would involve Christian characters and symbols.

But when was the last time you saw a Jewish demon movie?  While they do exist, they're very few and far between, so there's a really good chance that you've never even heard of any.  Well, that's about to change.  The Vigil is about a Jewish man named Yakov who's asked to keep vigil over the body of a deceased member of the Orthodox community he recently left, and in the course of the night, he realizes that there's a malevolent spirit in the house.  It originally premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019, and it was released on VOD and in limited theaters on February 26.

From the very first shot, this movie is super atmospheric, and while that atmosphere wanes a bit at times, it never goes away entirely.  In fact, it's the main source of horror in the film.  You get a few jump scares (but thankfully, only a few) and a bit of creepy imagery, but on the whole, this movie is more about tension and atmosphere than anything else.

For example, when Yakov begins his vigil, he turns away from the body, sits down, and puts his earbuds in to listen to music.  The camera then lingers on him with the corpse lying motionless in the background, and the tension immediately goes through the roof.  You expect the corpse to start moving, but you don't know when (or even if) it will, so every second of this shot is agonizingly suspenseful.

It's a pretty intense scene, but it's just one of many tricks The Vigil has up its sleeve.  The movie also employs some subtler scare tactics, and they're just as effective.  There are a few times when you think there's nothing supernatural going on, but then something unexpected happens and you suddenly realize that Yakov has been interacting with the demon all along.  Those scenes are particularly creepy because they catch you off guard, and all the fear you should've been feeling the entire time hits you in that one moment when you realize what's truly going on.

But the horror isn't the only thing this movie has going for in.  In fact, it's not even the best thing about the film.  We've all seen plenty of movies with effective scares and creepy atmospheres, but there are two other things that set this one apart and make it one of the must-see horror films of early 2021.  First, we have the character of Yakov.  He's admittedly not super developed, but actor Dave Davis makes him really likeable and sympathetic.  In the course of the movie, you learn that he's experienced some pretty heavy trauma in his life, and Davis's performance brings that out quite well, making you empathize with him and root for him to defeat his demons (both literal and metaphorical).

And secondly, there's the Jewish culture that saturates the film.  It's a very refreshing change from what we normally get in this subgenre, and it makes for a unique story and a unique dynamic between the characters.  Sure, it still has a lot of the tropes that we recognize and might even expect in a demon movie, but it's different enough that it doesn't feel like we've seen this same story a million times before.

If you couldn't tell, I really liked this movie.  It has a great atmosphere, some really effective scares, a likeable main character, and a unique cultural background that you just don't see very often in horror.  It's not perfect, but it doesn't have any major flaws.  Probably my biggest issue with the film is that it has a couple of really cliché jump scares, but that's not nearly enough to outweigh everything it gets right.  So if you're on the prowl for some good new horror, I definitely recommend that you check out The Vigil.  I don't know if it'll make my top ten list come December, but for now, it's one of the best horror movies of this very young year.

New Movie Review: Saint Maud

If you follow new horror releases beyond the big mainstream hits, you've almost certainly heard of Saint Maud.  It's the newest movie from A24, the company behind films like The Witch and Hereditary.  It was supposed to come out last year, but when the pandemic hit, its release became an absolute mess.  At first, it just got pushed back a few months, then it was removed from the release schedule entirely for a while, and it finally had a limited theatrical debut back on January 29 of this year.

And when I say limited, that's probably a bit of an understatement.  I live in one of the biggest movie markets in America, and this movie wasn't playing at a single theater near me.  The closest I saw on Fandango was one theater about an hour away, so I doubt many people got to see it on the big screen.  Instead, the vast majority of us had to wait until February 12, when it came out on VOD exclusively through the premium channel Epix.  It's a really obnoxious release strategy, but if you get a free trial subscription to Epix and then cancel it before they start charging you, you can actually watch this movie for free.  So it's not all bad.

But enough about the saga of Saint Maud's release.  Let's get to the actual movie.  It's a psychological horror film about a nurse named Maud who recently converted to Catholicism, and she's assigned to care for a dying cancer patient at the person's house.  Her newfound faith compels her to try to save this patient's soul, and she's willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal.

Just like every other A24 horror movie, Saint Maud is very atmospheric and very slow.  You need to be a very patient viewer to enjoy this one, so if you're looking for scares every few minutes, this is not the film for you.  In fact, for most of its runtime, it plays more like a drama than a horror movie, so this movie is definitely not for everyone.

However, if you're the kind of horror fan who would enjoy something like this, then you'll be richly rewarded.  For one, all of the technical aspects of the film are spot on, from the acting to the cinematography to the directing.  I especially enjoyed Morfyyd Clark's performance as Maud.  When the movie begins, she plays the role with a perfect combination of strong confidence and fearful timidity, so you totally buy her as a recent convert who completely believes in her faith but who is still very much haunted by the fact that it makes her different from everyone around her.  Then, as Maud's mental state deteriorates throughout the film, Clark also portrays every step along that path just as skillfully.

Secondly, the story is quite interesting too.  I don't want to give away any of the movie's secrets, so I'm going to be vague here.  There's more to this film than just the official plot synopsis (which I summarized above), and once it begins to deviate from that, it becomes really intriguing.  Maud isn't just a psycho religious fanatic who does bad things in the name of her religion.  She struggles with her faith, and seeing that struggle and the way it ties in with her overall mental and emotional condition is really fascinating.

In a similar vein, I also really like the unique way this movie portrays Maud's Catholicism. A lot of horror movies feature psycho religious fanatics, and they give the impression that their villains are supposed to accurately represent their religions (even if that's not actually their intention).  Take the 1976 classic Carrie, for example.  Any Christian worth their salt will tell you that Carrie's mother doesn't represent authentic Christianity, but it sometimes feels like the movie itself doesn't understand that.  However, Saint Maud is different.  The way I see it, Maud's psycho fanaticism is supposed to be a deviation from authentic Catholicism.  I think the whole point of it is that Maud practices some sort of bastardization of the Catholic faith rather than the real thing, and that makes for a much more interesting story than just a straightforward "religion is bad" kind of morality tale.

Thirdly and finally, we have the horror.  This movie doesn't have any real scares until the very end, but it has some creepy stuff to hold you over as you wait for the "good stuff."  In particular, Maud's extreme religious experiences and practices are quite unsettling, and the best (or worst, depending on your point of view) of them stick with you well after the credits roll.  Then, when the big finale comes and you finally get some legit scares, they hit hard.  I obviously don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that the last few scenes of this movie are well worth the wait.

So if you're looking for something new to watch this month, then look no further.  This is the best movie of the year so far.  Granted, that's not saying much in February, but I think it still counts for something.  I really liked this movie, and if you're the kind of horror fan who would enjoy an extremely slow, character-driven story with a creepy undertone and a hard-hitting ending, then you need to watch Saint Maud right now.

New VOD Movie Review: The Reckoning

The Reckoning is a new movie from director Neil Marshall, the guy behind behind Dog Soldiers and The Descent, two of the best horror movies of the 2000s. It premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival last August, and it was released to the general public on February 5 on VOD.  It's about a woman named Grace who's unfairly accused of witchcraft in 17th century England, and she suffers incredible torture at the hands of a witchfinder who hopes to wrest a confession from her.  It got mainly negative reviews out of Fantasia, but I was still looking forward to it.  I'm always interested in new projects from good horror directors, so I wanted to see this one for myself.

And when I finally saw it, I totally understood why it got such bad reviews.  While I think Marshall did a great job directing it, the story is just really weak.  He elevated it as much as he could and made it watchable, but on the whole, it's not a good movie.

When it starts, you see Grace living happily with her husband, but then he dies tragically when a plague sweeps the land.  She struggles to make ends meet for her and her baby, and one day, her landlord tries to take advantage of her situation and coerce her into having sex.  She refuses, so in return he accuses her of being a witch.

This part of the film is actually really good.  Grace is a compelling character, her story is interesting, and Marshall saturates the whole thing with a creepy atmosphere that keeps your eyes glued to the screen.  In particular, there are a few times when Grace has some supernatural visions or hallucinations, and those scenes are really cool.  The visuals are all spot on, so as I was watching it, I began to get my hopes up that I would actually end up liking this movie.

But then after Grace gets arrested and the witchfinder begins to torture her, the film takes a very steep nosedive in quality.  It still has some cool visuals and a great atmosphere, but the story just doesn't hold up.  Her trial takes place over a few days, and every day is basically the same thing.  She's tortured, the witchfinder tries to get her to confess, and she has a weird hallucination or dream about the devil and/or her dead husband.  Then they do it all over again the next day, and after a while, it feels like a boring, messed up version of Groundhog Day.  I completely lost interest in it, so I even had trouble enjoying the few things this part of the movie does well.

Finally, after a few days of this narrative monotony, the story changes gears one last time, and something a bit more interesting happens.  I don't want to spoil it in case you still want to see it, so I won't mention any specifics here.  Suffice it to say, the third act is better than the second, but that's not saying much.  While it maintains the good visuals and atmosphere, it's too little too late.  It's not nearly good enough to redeem the movie, so by the time the credits rolled, I was just really happy to be able to write this review and move on with my life.

All that being said, I do have to admit that I'm glad I watched The Reckoning, and not just because I can say that I saw it for myself and made my own judgment about it (although that's definitely a huge part of it).  Like I said, Neil Marshall elevated this bland story as much as he could, and I did genuinely enjoy the visuals and the atmosphere.  But I still can't recommend this film.  It's not a complete waste of your time, but the bad far outweighs the good here, so unless you just need to see this one for yourself, I'd recommend giving it a pass and waiting for something better.