How does an outsider come to make a horror film in the infamous clustered Hasidic enclave in Borough Park?
Some with Chutjah, and with lots of help.
First-time writer and director Keith Thomas set out to bring his vision – a supernatural horror film about a supernatural Jewish community – to life. The result is “The Vigil”, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2019 and will be available to watch in select theaters on Friday and stream on VOD.
The story centers on Yakov (an influential Dave Davis of “The Big Short” and “True Detective”), a onetime Hasid who recently cut ties with the island community after a family crisis. Struggling to make ends meet, he reluctantly accepts an overnight job as a showmer – someone who watches over the corpse is considered a pious act in Jewish tradition.
This is going to be an easy $ 400. Yakov thinks either.
The night that unfolds traditional horror film action with deep Jewish mysticism draws from the world of demonology. The body belongs to Mr. Litvak, a known recluse, whose wife suffers from advanced dementia. As Yaakov quickly learns, the deceased was plagued by a magic, an evil, supernatural hanger, who was looking for a new host. “When I am gone, Magic will find another broken man,” the old man warns with terrible eyesight. “It will slowly consume their soul.”
Thomas, 45, who is Jewish but not Orthodox, was first inspired to write a horror story about a showmer in the early 2000s, when he was a master in religious education at Hebrew Union College in Manhattan Studying for a degree. Then, he strolled across the city’s various ultra-orthodox enclaves. “I found these communities really fascinating,” he told the Post. “I felt it was really comfortable to go to their shawls.”
In fact, he was inside a synagogue when the idea first sparked, as he overheard two older people discussing a showmer, who left his post due to fear. Thomas said such provocative snippets “sat with me for a long time.” “I thought it was a tricky idea.”
Nevertheless, many years ago he was able to pursue it.
Once he had a script in hand and some conservative producers connected, Thomas, who lived in Denver, knew that the right casting was important. “A lot of the actors are from the community,” he said, including Menshe Lustig, who starred in the critically acclaimed 2017 film “Menshe”. He also hired some conservative advisors, who made the film feel right for life.
Thomas said, “I trusted his insights – I knew I had to bow down to them.” Although he wrote the film in English, he was aided by the original Yiddish speakers, who by the time the six-week shoot commenced in 2018, had scripted with traditional Hasid language.
Malki Goldman plays Sarah, a friend of Yaakov. Like her character in “The Vigil”, 32-year-old Goldman left her ultra-orthodox upbringing in Jerusalem and became an actress, and now lives in Ditmus Park. She told The Post that Thomas was committed to making the film “as authentic to the horror community as it was to the Hasid community.”
For Thomas, finding that balance was important, but difficult. “I did not want to discredit the community, but I also did not just want to celebrate it. I want to be true to the world and the people.
He said that he got his first glimpse of the impact of his film late at night while shooting in Williamsburg.
Thomas of curious locals said, “It was about 2:30 in the morning and we saw about 150 conservative men on set.” “We are lucky that we had a lot of Yiddish speakers and Rabis to explain to them.”
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