THE VAST OF NIGHT – Review

A 1950s black-and-white television in a living room typical of the era plays the intro to a “Twilight Zone” like TV show. While the Rod Serling-sounding narrator intones, “Tonight’s episode: The Vast of Night,” the camera slowly moves closer to the flickering screen until the image on the screen fills our view. The flickering fades and the view transforms to a sepia-tinted color scene of a rural high school gym in little Cayuga, New Mexico. Two young friends, the sharp-witted Everett (Jake Horowitz), the overnight DJ at the local radio show, and spunky teenager Fay (Sierra McCormick), the night switchboard operator for the local police, team up to solve the mystery of a strange thumping source that invades the airwaves.

The clever TV show opening immediately draws us in, to what we expect to be an homage to that TV classic but, in his debut film, writer/director Andrew Patterson gives us a deeper, more interesting tale, one that becomes darker as it unfolds. The New Mexico setting is significant, as there are references to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FIRST KIND and ’50s sci-fi classics but also tales of flying saucers, off-world visits, military cover-ups and Area 51.

Jake Horowitz and Sierra McCormick couldn’t be more perfect as the lead characters – nerdy smart, resourceful and determined, they both sporting heavy-framed glasses and an insatiable curiosity, with a taste for solving mysteries. The film features plenty of period tech – radio equipment, tape recorders, switchboards – and period cultural touch points – Elvis, Modern Science magazines, Sputnik and worries about Soviet spies. Like a Twilight Zone episode, the mix of sci-fi, mystery and adventure gives way to something else, something unexpected.

At first, the film is a light and fun retro homage, seeming like a standard adventure focused on a pair of teens searching for clues to solve a mystery. But deeper elements begin to emerge, about human longing, society’s flaws, the overlooked, and ignored, all skillfully woven into a haunting subtext to the unfolding story.

The mystery centers on an odd sound, which first seeps into Everett’s radio broadcast, then hums through one of Fay’s phone lines. Puzzled, Everett plays the recorded sound on air and asks listeners to call in if they know what the sound is. Then he gets a call from a man named Billy (Bruce Davis) who tells a fantastic tale of secret military missions and something more ominous and stranger.

The film’s visual style is striking. The whole story takes place at night, in shadowy scenes packed with those references. Images are often shadowy, with reverse key lighting, which suits the mystery and retro tone well, and also suggests film noir. Long takes and beautifully framed, half lit shots lend an eerie tension and suspense to the film. .

McCormick and Horowitz are both charismatic and appealing, with a good chemistry between them, and their strong performances add greatly to the film. Bruce Davis is very effective as the unseen caller, raising social touch points like race which we do not expect in this tale. Gail Cronauer is moving as an older woman who adds a new layer to the deepening story.

When the caller begins to tell his tale, the screen periodically goes black, a very effective technique to force us to concentrate on his critical words. It is one of several cinematic techniques the director and cinematographer Miguel I. Littin Menz use. Periodically, the visual style shifts back to flickering black and white, to remind us of the “Twilight Zone” framing device. Patterson uses this repeated reminder, shifted back and forth between sepia-shaded color and flickering black-and-white a little too often, creating a distraction, but then it settles down to storytelling before the film’s emotionally powerful end. The story is set in New Mexico but it really looks more like Texas Hill Country, where it was actually shot. The location works for the film but the mismatch creates another unnecessary distraction. However, these are minor flaws in an otherwise admirable, thought-provoking film.

THE VAST OF NIGHT is a striking film, as well as an impressive debut for writer/director Andrew Patterson. If you are a fan of TWILIGHT ZONE, have a taste for old technology, and are intrigued by “what-if” tales at the crossroads of science and myth, this one should strike a chord, and leave you, like me, looking forward to Patterson’s next film.

THE VAST OF NIGHT is available on Amazon Prime.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars