Creepy, but the "battle" was very weak. - Jewish demon, watching over a dead body was creepy enough of a story. Had tremendous potential

Very unsettling and disturbing movie. Eerie and chilling. Would consider it a great one if it wasn't for that lame and unsatisfying ending. Still, that shouldn't stop anyone from watching it, the rest of it is worthy! Definitely a must see for the fans of psychological supernatural horror.

L’univers dans lequel nous mène le réalisateur est complètement fascinant. Son humanisme nous donne le courage de surpasser la peur par une quête intérieure bienveillante. J’ai rarement ressenti autant d’émotions contradictoires en visionnant un film.

Quite a clever film about PTSD, disguised as a horror flick. Good performances and photography. The ambiance of the house durign the vigil is great.

The best scary film that i’ve seen in years! Super cool to see this genre centred around something other than Christianity! I would genuinely watch it again.

Pretty darn good give it a try

It has creepy atmosphere ang good jump scares.

A very trite premise that somehow feels fresh. The Vigil takes the over used theme of demonic possession and puts a relatively new spin to it. Extremely strong and realistic performances from Dave Davis and Lynn Cohen along with incredible sound design push this film from good to great. If you're a fan of the horror genre this one should be at the top of your must watch list... 8.3/10

It is good to see a supernatural horror film constructed around something other than Christian conceptions of evil, however the movie is still fairly predictable with jump scares in all of the places you would expect.

May not quite be an eventful haunting, the expected surveillance pleasantly diverts and dives into a particular spiritual lore with genuinely clever manifestations tuning up the chills, also benefiting from the committed performances. (B+)

Great movie, not sure why such low score from audience it has some spiritual depth and good messages with a solid resolution. Unique setting as well with a reliance on pure horror instead of jump scares.

"The Vigil" is neither good nor bad. The cinematography is claustrophobic, the editing is precise, and the soundtrack builds momentum. But the mazzik or monster – weak and underwhelming – doesn't match the protagonist's intensity and vulnerability. Dave Davis gives a strong performance as Yakov who house-sits for a corpse for five hours as a "shomer" while the underutilized creepy widow fades in-&-out of the story.

I really liked THE VIGIL, and it isn't because of any amazing plot or ground-breaking filmmaking. What I liked (at least, after it was over) was that the film was amazingly creepy and tense. I felt stress through almost the entire movie. Sustained, unrelieved tension. And when it was over (and I smiled as the tension finally released itself), I immediately realized what a rare experience I'd had. When I watch a "horror" movie, I look for either a gripping story with engaging characters, or at best, I hope to be "scared." THE VIGIL was scary. Fun! This is a short film, and it gets down to business quickly. We meet a young man named Yakov (the really tremendous Dave Davis), who is spending time with a support group for adults who have "escaped" their oppressive Hasidic community. He's clearly still struggling with living in the real world. A girl is interested in him, and just his complete inability to relate to her shows us just how "stunted" he is (at least as it relates to the broader world; I am not going to cast judgement on the Hasidic Jewish community, since I know very little). And he's struggling to make a living. So when one of his old rabbi's stops him on the street with an offer to make some money, he finds himself drawn in. He's being paid to sit Vigil for a recently deceased old man. In Jewish/Hasidic tradition, the deceased needs to be watched over for a day, and usually this is done by family and friends. But it's not unheard of to pay for the service, and Yakov strikes a bargain to spend the night with this old man, alone in the house, except for the old man's dementia ridden widow. One thing great about the film is that writer/director Keith Thomas (an amazing feature film debut!) doesn't mess around. These establishing scenes happen pretty quickly, just enough to help us know Yakov enough to have sympathy for him; to be ready to root for him. Within moments of his arrival, on a dark night in a dark house, weird stuff starts happening. I don't want to share too many details. Suffice it to say that the old man had some pretty big secrets, that his wife isn't quite as far-gone as originally presented, and that Yakov is in for a helluva a night in the company of some pretty deep malevolence. The plot is simple. The secrets revealed come in small doses, but it's easy to put the pieces together. You don't say "what was that" at the end. It's pretty clear. It's just tense and creepy and, yes, scary for almost its entire duration. Davis gives a tremendous performance; much of the success of the film hinges on him. He brings decency to his role, and we can almost palpably feel his fear and his courage. It's a movie about redemption, and it's simply very, very good. If you like your horror low-key but creepy, look no further than this little gem.

A well-produced Horror flick with real heart that has the scary/creepy things in the best ways.

This is an underrated gem of horror. The main actor really sold it for me. Every moment, I could feel the fear and anxiety building during certain scenes. He was able to suspend my disbelief that he was an actor playing just another horror role lead. The premise and setup was interesting too. A breath of fresh air to have insight into Hasidic religion as opposed to the Christian demon possession movies we are already used to.

I like the premise, but it is never the least bit creepy.

Strong debut from director Keith Thomas who uses Jewish folklore, faith & personal grief to make a generally creepy film. The lack of light & the sound helps to build a number of tense moments.

Low budget movie, first have is good and creepy but the 2nd half loses its touch. It's not as scary during the second half, first half is creepy and somewhat scary. They could've took this movie in a different direction and made it a lot better than it is. It had a lot of potential. Overall I guess it's a decent horror movie compared to the plethora of bad horror movies out there.

Minimalist horror movie with big brains and a powerful message. Beautifully written, beautifully shot and the Jewish motifs were fascinating.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS! Keith Thomas. I'm saving his name for NEVER seeing something made by this man again! The "Firestarter" remake this year was already atrocious, and "The Vigil" (his debut film in 2019) is not far behind in terms of badness. Dave Davis, Menashe Lustig and Lynn Cohen (RIP) are decent characters and the story was promising, but everything is ruined by the man whose name started this review. Thomas seems to force a horror atmosphere here (he seems to have no notion of how to build a horror ambience), the soundtrack is too aggressive, there's a scene when the protagonist is feeling his bones breaking that is almost completely dark, and the scene where he confronts the evil entity is one of the worst I've ever seen. Are you really expecting to burn someone's face using a candle and 15cm far from its face? That's why the movie industry uses visual effects, to avoid embarrassments like this. The film was already boring, with almost nothing happening (and the resource of cellphone screen items appearing on the scene doesn't work outside teenage/rom-com films), and this finale makes a point of being a rotten cherry on a burned cake. And yes, I strongly believe that the PG-13 rating has compromised this project a lot. I mean, why a movie with this thematic would be PG-13? It doesn't make sense, at least in my mind.