Filmmaker Keith Thomas will see his festival hit The Vigil released here in the United States next year via IFC Midnight, but before then it will arrive on UK VOD platforms November 30th and on DVD January 4, 2021.
The Vigil had its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival in the coveted Midnight Madness section with a subsequent U.S. premiere at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival.
Joe Lipsett reviewed The Vigil out of its premiere in TIFF’s Midnight Madness program, a film in which a man providing overnight watch to a deceased member of his former Orthodox Jewish community finds himself opposite a malevolent entity.
In his review, Lipsett wrote that The Vigil is “a fresh take on the religious/demon possession horror film” that “feels like a breath of fresh air.“
“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.”
The film stars Adam Margules, Dave Davis, Menashe Lustig, Malky Goldman, Lynn Cohen, and Fred Melamed. It was produced by JD Lifshitz and Raphael Margules at Boulderlight and Adam Margules of Angry Adam Productions.