The Vigil

Cert: 16; in cinemas now

Another week, another horror, however The Vigil is a little different. For a start, it is a Jewish horror film, that’s unusual, and although it has traditional horror tropes and techniques like creepy old ladies and jump scares, there is more to it. Even its low budget works for it. I was scared but I was also interested.

Yakov (a very good Dave Davis) has just left his tight-knit Hassidic community in New York. He is struggling financially so reluctantly accepts a job as a shomer, sitting with the body of recently deceased Buchenwald survivor, Mr Litvak whose wife (Lynn Cohen) has Alzheimer’s. However, when Yakov arrives she is lucid enough to know that he has something to fear.

Most of the film takes place in the Litvak’s dark front room where the draped corpse is the least of Yakov’s worries. The spookiness is more atmospheric than visual which works well, as does the score by Michael Yezerski and the premise, that past pain and looking back makes people vulnerable, is interesting. Keith Thomas’s film is concise, creepy, to the point and effective.