Reviews of The Vigil and Outside the Wire

midlandsmovies • January 27, 2021

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

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