The Vast of Night

Mystery thrillers have an interesting flexibility as many of them primarily rely on the writing of its premise and the execution of it through their pool of main actors regardless of the size of the budget. The challenge of making the subject matter an engaging topic for audiences can be tricky depending on its approach with the tone, the ordeal that needs clues to make the puzzle eye catching, and characters who are entertaining for their respective personalities. While many are familiar with examples from recent years with Knives Out (2019), there can be a few unknown independent features in that genre that can always pull up surprises of their own when viewers least expect it. This brings us to The Vast of Night, a science fiction mystery film from the directorial debut of Andrew Patterson, who personally financed the project at the cost of $700,000 as it was filmed in 3 to 4 weeks with an unknown cast of actors. It had appeared in a handful film festivals in 2019 and Amazon Studios secured the distribution rights to be released May 2020. This feature wasn't advertised much on social media but it was brought to my attention thanks to a video review of it from Chris Stuckmann (via YouTube) I had checked out a while back before adding it to my watchlist. I knew very little about it to make sure I was as blind as possible before watching it for free thanks to Amazon Prime and after watching it, I was very impressed by how much work went into the stunning quality of this indie mystery flick. 

What's it about? Taking place in the 1950s, the story follows a pair of friends (a switchboard operator and a radio disc jockey) as they encounter a weird audio frequency related to something peculiar. The reminiscence of a Twilight Zone episode is made apparently clear in the first minute as a tv monitor appears with a narration to let audiences know what kind of tale is in store for them. The effectiveness of the strange phenomena that's going on primarily relies on this duo acting and reacting to newest updates on what's happening in their area. The urgency of this search for answers is reflected how fast these protagonists are moving given that this time is occurring during a high school basketball event (which is only a few hours). While not a lot of events actually happen, it's the description of the clues found that add to the bizarre occurrence. For a first time film, it's an effort that shouldn't be underestimated but could have maybe used a bit of a punch up in the script for a few more scenes that would have been nice to have in places. 

 

How's the production value? Considering how small the budget it, it's worth pointing out how great the camera is used throughout. A handful of cramped indoor scenes with at least 1 or 2 characters are shot in in one take for the cast to use their limited resources to the best in getting it right as much as possible. There's a particular moment that shows the view moving from a switchboard operating station and to the radio broadcast station in a long continuous shot (the crew had someone take the camera in a golf cart and drive it fast to get that sequence). Even getting the leads acclimated to the devices of that time such as a switchboard is great to see. 

How are the actors? In regards to story importance, the actors to focus on are Jake Horowitz and Sierra McCormick. Jake gives a great performance that's confident and balanced with slight touches curiosity towards the unknown as someone you want to hang out with more. Sierra is also pretty good in her acting that's mixes shyness with anxiety that arises in both personal circumstances and dangers. The chemistry between Jake and Sierra is absolutely a highlight to watch as their personalities are an excellent fit to the point where one or two more scenes of them would have been nice in this character-driven tale. Honorable mentions go to Gail Cronauer and Bruce Davis for their respective chilling deliveries of their stories. 

 

Overall Consensus: The Vast of Night is a stunning directorial debut with a mystery that thrives on its main acting leads portrayals and chemistry, the intrigue of its premise, fascinating tension, and wonderful production value on its limited budget. ⭑⭑⭑⭑1/4🍿 Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes PG-13

 

Reasons to watch it: You like any of the aforementioned actors. You enjoy Twilight Story type of tales. You like seeing first time directors trying filmmaking tricks on a low budget with unknown actors. You don't mind stories where not a lot happens but like seeing tension build up. 

 

Reasons to avoid it: You dislike any of the aforementioned actors. You don't enjoy Twilight Story type of tales. You have issues with stories where not a lot happens.