THE VAST OF NIGHT
Frequency Asked Questions
Two ’50s kids investigate a strange frequency in this Amazon Original.
RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 12 | VOD Director Andrew Patterson Cast Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz, Bruce Davis, Gail Cronauer
If the sole measure of a film’s success were its ability to immerse an audience in its world, this atmospheric indie would count as a triumph.
Small town New Mexico in the ’50s. Over the course of a few hours one night, we follow a young switchboard operator (Sierra McCormick) and radio DJ (Jake Horowitz) as they investigate strange chattering noises, which two callers claim to have heard before… As a framing device presenting it as an episode of the fictitious Paradox Theater acknowledges, the set-up is pure Twilight Zone. The care taken over period detail combines with the script’s Howard Hawks-esque overlapping chat – the film opens with 18 minutes of relentless yammering – to weave a vivid sense of time and place. It often feels like it could have worked equally well as a radio play – particularly during the stand-out sequences, where locals supply captivating testimony. Ingeniously executed tracking shots that send the camera roaming impossibly about town open things up, but feel somewhat inessential.
It’s compellingly tense; sadly, a rather abrupt pay-off leaves the film feeling like one long preamble. Still, file director Andrew Patterson under “one to watch”. Ian Berriman
The town, Cayuga, is named after Rod Serling’s production company; station call sign WOTW nods to War Of The Worlds.