Close Menu
  • Login
  • Support Us
  • Newsletter
  • News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Video Games
      • Previews
      • PC
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X/S
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Xbox One
      • PS4
      • Tabletop
    • Film
    • TV
    • Anime
    • Comics
      • BOOM! Studios
      • Dark Horse Comics
      • DC Comics
      • IDW Publishing
      • Image Comics
      • Indie Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • Oni-Lion Forge
      • Valiant Comics
      • Vault Comics
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Event Coverage
    • BWT Recommends
    • RSS Feeds
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Support Us
But Why Tho?
RSS Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube
Trending:
  • Features
    EA Sports Madden NFL 26 Head Coach But Why Tho 5

    Dear EA Sports, Why Can’t I Make A Hot Coach?

    08/14/2025
    Blade in Marvel Rivals Season 3.5

    Blade Can Shut Down The Other Team In Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 If You Know How

    08/08/2025
    John Cena and Cody Rhodes during Summerslam 2025

    The SummerSlam 2025 Main Event Was A Fever Dream We All Needed

    08/08/2025
    Street Fighter 6 Sagat

    Sagat Brings Depth And Approachability To ‘Street Fighter 6’

    08/07/2025
    Battlefield 6 Classes - Support trailer image

    Battlefield 6 Really Wants You To Play Support (But Knows You Won’t)

    07/31/2025
  • Indie Games
  • K-Dramas
  • Netflix
  • Apple TV+
But Why Tho?
Home » Film » REVIEW: ‘The Vigil’ Showcases the Horror of Guilt

REVIEW: ‘The Vigil’ Showcases the Horror of Guilt

Kate SánchezBy Kate Sánchez02/22/20215 Mins ReadUpdated:02/22/2021
the vigil
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

the vigil

Guilt eats at you. Once it takes hold, especially when steeped in trauma, it crawls into your skin and impacts your every move. Guilt survives on fear and traps us in a moment that we relive constantly. To escape it, we push away the elements of ourselves associate with, trying to push away the trauma. This is the crux of The Vigil, a film from IFC Midnight, written and directed by Keith Thomas.

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

The Vigil is steeped in Jewish lore and demonology. Taking course over a single evening in Brooklyn’s Hasidic Borough Park neighborhood, the film presents audiences with a horror baked in trauma and a story propelled by guilt. In the film, Yakov (Dave Davis) is low on funds. Having recently left his insular religious community, he reluctantly accepts an offer from his former rabbi and confidante (Menashe Lustig) to take on the responsibility of an overnight “shomer,” fulfilling the Jewish practice of watching over the body of a deceased community member in the days before burial.

When Yakov takes the job, he is to protect the body of Mr. Litvak, a Holocaust survivor. Shortly after arriving at the recently departed’s dilapidated house to sit the vigil, Yakov begins to realize that something is very, very wrong. Unbeknownst to Yakov, a Mazzik has been latched on to Mr. Latvik for decades, and his job of sitting vigil isn’t as simple as it seems. Living from his guilt and trauma, and now it’s set its sights on Yakov, who is still working through his own past trauma. Without getting into spoilers about both men’s lives, the Mazzik works as a way to both instill fear in the viewer but also to work as a monster that pushes our main character to confront his past and move past it.

The Mazzik doesn’t only take a physical toll on Yakov’s body, it speaks to him through those he trusts and loves, using technology to its advantage. As Yakov reaches for others, friends, and his therapist, the Mazzik intervenes at every turn, forcing Yakov to face his past and make the choice if he will keep looking back or destroy it. The Mazzik, represented in its victims with a head turned backward is a powerful metaphor for the way our trauma keeps us stuck looking at the past and how we can choose to fight and finally start looking forward.

the Vigil

The Vigil is an intimate story. Shot primarily in a single house and on a single night, the story’s success falls on Davis’s shoulders as our lead. As Yakov, Davis is terrifyingly relatable, extremely emotive, and capable of pulling empathy from the audience. For long periods of time, Davis is the only actor on screen. Davis’s phenomenal acting is ultimately my favorite part of the film.

That said, my only issue with The Vigil is how visually dark the film is. While I have a deep appreciation for the use of greens and shadow in the film, the claustrophobic atmosphere could have been maintained without making the audience squint to see what is happening. But this is a small complaint for a strong film. The darkness lends to small jump scares but for the large atmospheric dread that the film wraps you in isn’t due to the lighting, it’s the sound design. While the film’s closing song feels like closure, it’s the small sounds through the film that unsettle the viewer. Small creaks, the sound of bones, and ultimately the sounds of the body, transform from innocuous to terrifying.  And that alone makes up for small imperfections in lighting.

The Vigil may not seem like a revolutionary film, and in some ways, it isn’t. We’ve seen stories of demons haunting people instead of places before. We’ve seen films take place in cramped quarters over a short period of time. But what we haven’t seen, is a horror film aimed to not just use Jewish culture as set dressing (like 2012’s The Possession) but instead uses Jewish culture and history to tell its story. The film itself features a mixture of English, Yiddish, and Hebrew. The supernatural force that clung to Mr. Litvak and now tries to do so with Yakov is a personal interpretation of a demon from Jewish lore. And finally, the trauma on display in the film is specific to the Jewish experience, specifically antisemitism.

This is a film that showcases the importance of horror expanding past the same narratives and embracing cultural nuances, practices, and beliefs to tell new stories. Additionally, The Vigil represents a universal story of confronting the painful mixture of grief, trauma, and guilt. Fighting the fear that it instills in us and coming out of a long night of darkness and pain to see the sun. While the heart of the film can be appreciated by all, it also manages to showcase a story that looks deeply at not just personal trauma, but intergenerational trauma within the Jewish community. More specifically, how the pain from the Holocaust has remained within the community, from survivors to the antisemitism that the current generation faces.

As a whole, The Vigil is a must-see horror film for fans of the supernatural. But more importantly, it’s a film that tackles a universal story through a cultural lens and does so by centering Jewish identity and belief. Ultimately, The Vigil is a great start to 2021’s horror offerings and I hope to see more horror stories from this cultural perspective and from the filmmaker as well.

The Vigil is available on digital platforms and VOD on February 26, 2021.

The Vigil
  • 9/10
    Rating - 9/10
9/10

TL;DR

As a whole, The Vigil is a must-see horror film for fans of the supernatural. But more importantly, it’s a film that tackles a universal story through a cultural lens and does so by centering Jewish identity and belief. Ultimately, The Vigil is a great start to 2021’s horror offerings and I hope to see more horror stories from this cultural perspective and from the filmmaker as well.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Previous ArticleREVIEW: ‘Horimiya’ Episode 7 – “You’re Here, I’m Here”
Next Article REVIEW: ‘Behind Her Eyes’ Brings a Twist, But Without Enough Plot To Deliver It
Kate Sánchez
  • Website
  • X (Twitter)
  • Instagram

Kate Sánchez is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of But Why Tho? A Geek Community. There, she coordinates film, television, anime, and manga coverage. Kate is also a freelance journalist writing features on video games, anime, and film. Her focus as a critic is championing animation and international films and television series for inclusion in awards cycles. Find her on Bluesky @ohmymithrandir.bsky.social

Related Posts

Madelyn Cline and KJ Apa in The Map That Leads to You
8.0

REVIEW: ‘The Map That Leads To You’ Is YA Romance Done Right

08/19/2025
Lurker promotional still from MUBI

REVIEW: ‘Lurker’ Probes The Intoxication Of Fame

08/19/2025
The Knife (2025) promotional still
7.0

REVIEW: ‘The Knife’ Is Simple And Too Much At The Same Time

08/17/2025
Still from Shin Godzilla
8.5

REVIEW: ‘Shin Godzilla’ Is More Relevant Than Ever

08/16/2025
Fixed promotional key art from Netflix Animation
6.0

REVIEW: ‘Fixed’ Is Top-Notch Animation But Bottom Of The Barrel Comedy

08/15/2025
Denzel Washington Highest 2 Lowest
7.0

REVIEW: ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Has A Ton Of Fun Missing It’s Own Points

08/15/2025

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here
TRENDING POSTS
Still from Shin Godzilla
8.5
Film

REVIEW: ‘Shin Godzilla’ Is More Relevant Than Ever

By Sarah Musnicky08/16/2025Updated:08/17/2025

It is understandable how Shin Godzilla succeeded at the box office nearly a decade ago. The strength of its story still stands today.

Botanical Bliss Update Palia But Why Tho 5 News

Palia’s New Botanical Bliss Update Brings New Flora, Decorations, And Quest Mechanic

By Matt Donahue08/18/2025Updated:08/18/2025

The Botanical Bliss update adds new event, more plushes, and a host of quality-of-life improvements and more to celebrate 2 years of Palia.

BOOTS Netflix First Look promotional images News

First Look at Coming-of-Age Story BOOTS, Coming to Netflix This October

By But Why Tho?08/17/2025

Netflix is reporting for duty this fall with the new eight-episode series BOOTS, a comedic drama starring Miles Heizer and Vera Farmiga

Nuestra Magia Secret Lair Art Interviews

EXCLUSIVE: How The ‘Nuestra Magia’ Secret Lair Found Its Identity And Raised Over $1M

By Kate Sánchez08/15/2025Updated:08/15/2025

We spoke with Ovidio Cartagena about Magic: The Gathering’s Nuestra Magia Secret Lair drop, its impact, and the real treasure within.

But Why Tho?
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest RSS YouTube Twitch
  • CONTACT US
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Review Score Guide
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small contribution.
Written Content is Copyright © 2025 But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

But Why Tho Logo

Support Us!

We're able to keep making content thanks to readers like YOU!
Support independent media today with
Click Here