Reviews of The Vigil and Outside the Wire

midlandsmovies • January 27, 2021

Reviews of The Vigil and Outside the Wire

The Vigil (2021) Dir. Keith Thomas

In his feature directorial debut Keith Thomas provides plenty of spooky horrors in a film that explores religion, folklore and belief systems, whilst also providing some terrific terrors along the way. Dave Davis is Yakov Ronen, a former Orthodox Jew who is asked by his previous community to keep a vigil as part of Shemira. Shemira is the Jewish ritual of watching over the body from the time of death until burial. But with money tight, and understandably reticent to engage back with a life left behind, Yakov reluctantly agrees to become the Shomer. Hoping to pass the time on his phone, the planned quiet night is interrupted by noises and unnerving incidents in the form of a malevolent force.

With a small cast and budget, the world building is excellent and the insights into the customs of the faith are engaging throughout. There are some pretty expected scares but these felt earned as the demon (a type of Mazzikin in Jewish mythology) slowly reveals its presence. And we, along with Yakov himself, experience almost unbearable levels of anxiety as the easy night planned becomes anything but that. With the body always in the room, and with a widow upstairs, the tension is consistently kept high thus creating the fear and suspense needed for a haunted house flick (of sorts). Yet despite tropes we’ve all viewed elsewhere before, the distinctive traditions rarely seen on screen help elevate The Vigil to a one-of-a-kind horror with enough terror (and surprising solemnity) to rise above the pack. ★★★★

(Note: Although mostly in English, Yiddish is prevalently spoken throughout but the Netflix UK version only allows ALL subtitles at the time of writing)

Outside the Wire (2021) Dir. Mikael Håfström


In 2036 a civil war rages in Eastern Europe and drone pilot Lt. Thomas Harp (Damson Idris) breaks orders to deploy a bomb and as punishment is subsequently assigned into the care of Captain Leo (Anthony Mackie). Leo turns out to be a highly advanced android super-soldier (quite) and together they are tasked with heading out on a mission to prevent a terrorist (Pilou Asbæk as Victor Koval) gaining control of missile silos. The first third sets up an intriguing world and whilst no Blade Runner, heck it’s not even Chappie, the film sets its story in motion with two good performances. The film also provides the appropriate amount of back-story which is efficient, and the characters’ understandable motivations help push things along too.


The duo are also a good foil for one another, with Mackie’s blunt Captain squaring off against the mouthy recruit in his charge. But haphazard cutting (think Taken 3’s abundance of awful montages) and frankly incomprehensible crossing the camera line edits, the at-times impressive set pieces are lost amongst a cacophony of spatially confused action that perplexes at times as to where anyone is. As it progresses, the familiar beats play out with secret contacts, duplicitous agents and robotic fire fights and at the end of a big action finale I was pleased it ended. BUT NO! Checking my watch, it turned out there were 50 more minutes of this left! Long, messy and including some half-baked explorations of the ethics of war, Outside the Wire seemed to set itself up as a sci-fi Training Day but its final delivery is ultimately as forgettable as they come. ★★½ 


Michael Sales

By midlandsmovies April 29, 2025
With a number of acclaimed films under his belt including Cosmo, Gone Fishing and The Morgue Party, Jonathan Hawes launches a new short, once again in his favourite genre of comedy. Midlands Movies Mike Sales speaks to the writer/director about his latest project, his influences and his plans for the film.
By midlandsmovies April 26, 2025
Up! (1976) Dir. Russ Meyer  Well, bi-Adolf Hitler BDSM is not something (a) I thought I’d ever see 5 minutes into a movie and (b) ever expected to write in my lifetime to be fair but this spicy start is pretty standard for the work of exploitation filmmaker Russ Meyer. Up! is a kind of r*pe-revenge softcore p*rn film (there’s gonna be a fair bit of self-censorship in this review so apologies in advance), the type Meyer is known for. I’d describe the plot in more detail but it’s mostly a convoluted and incoherent mess of double-crossing, murder, violence and lots and lots of humping. In short, a man called Adolph gets murdered and a woman investigates (kinda) the circumstances but as she does so, a group of locals blackmail, attack and screw each other with the murder mystery barely mentioned throughout. With so little narrative, it could be argued if it’s essentially p*rn? To be fair, not far off. It’s about extreme as you can go without simply making a s*x film. Is that a…no, it’s a belly button hole. Bookending the film (and also seen at various points throughout) is a Greek Chorus - simply a busty fully nude woman of course - who delivers dialogue like “Pummelling the scrotum with joyous supplication” and other such poeticisms. This artistic flourish is mostly pointless - the actress herself saying the words were tough to learn because it was utter nonsense. On a technical level, the editing is surprisingly well done and the 4k image is frankly fantastic. Someone somewhere must be putting together a post-modern take about the beautiful landscapes and cinematography of Meyer’s * ahem * output. But it definitely does have a kitsch artistry. It has certainly provided plenty of cinematic influence though. Elements of Tarantino grindhouse sensibilities are on show - Meyers likes bosoms as much as Quents likes feet - and there’s even a leather gimp early on. I can also see how its had an impact on Ti West X’s with a focus on sexuality and the body as well, more obviously, Anna Biller’s feminist-twist The Love Witch (2016). Suffice to say it’s not for the weak of heart. I think in this day and age you can’t go into this completely blind to its style, period and context though. It's an X-rated Carry On style that was bad taste then and it’s bad taste now. It revels in its sleaziness without a single hint of shame or apology. Simply saying 'deal with it'. The main negative though is the absence of plot - if the film can even be looked at like that - which is barely present. This is a shame as the whole thing could do with a bit more coherence rather than endless shagging. But it’s far from titillation, it’s mostly clowning - albeit a very adult version of it. More saucy than sexy. Trying to review this through modern sensibilities is almost impossible. It’s as offensive can be from the first scene through to the final credits - heck even this 4k menu is simply one of the film's many s*x scenes. But there are some progressive themes as it doesn’t shy from confronting sexual freedom, bisexuality, gay sex, BDSM and consensual exploration. There's moments of comedy thrown in and I enjoyed a frankly hilarious 5-minute monologue explaining the culprit’s intentions, which was a ludicrous way to deliver a slasher-style ending. I suppose the main thing about Up! (and Meyers’ work overall) is there’s a sort of love it or loathe it quality about the whole shebang. But it’s so unlike anything being made today - for good or bad - that it’s never anything other than unpredictably fascinating. More explicit than most Meyers films - in fact more than any film - it’s a lewd, rude and crude (s)exploration with a satirical edge and campy enjoyment bouncing from every frame. ★★★ 3 / 5 Michael Sales Severin Films releases Russ Meyers' UP! (1976) and MOTORPSYCHO (1965) on 28 April 2025 in newly restored and scanned 4k with hours of new and archival Special Features https://severinfilms.co.uk/
By midlandsmovies April 26, 2025
On the 24th of April, the Midlands Art Centre opened its doors to Gobby Flicks Productions for a night of live comedy. Proceeds were raised towards the production of new short comedy films, directed and written by women.
By midlandsmovies April 25, 2025
Ti West’s The House of the Devil makes a wonderful companion piece to his film The Innkeepers. Both maintain the director’s referential approach to horror, incapsulating it in a slow burning 90 minutes that manages to build and maintain tension while cheekily winking to the audience and showing the mechanisms behind the scares.
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