Blumhouse Productions really do have an endless stream of horror movies, but this movie is one of those that stand out. Like really stand out. There aren't a lot of Jewish Folklore based horror movies, but those that exist are excellent and this movie is no exception. Also, director and writer Keith Thomas has a "Master's Degree in Religious Education from the Hebrew Union College in New York" according to IMDB so I'm guessing that most things depicted in this movie are authentic.
The premise of the movie is fairly simple, Yakov Ronen has left the Orthodox Jewish community and is now hanging out with others like him. From some reason his name sounds like two first names instead of a first name and a last name, but maybe that is intentional as Ronen is a more secular name. Yakov is clearly suffering from traumatic past experiences and also has difficulties with new modern world which he has not been part of for a very long time as apparently he has only recently left the orthodox way of life and is struggling with his new life.
One day Rabbi Shulem approaches him and asks him to be a Shomer, the Vigil. The Shomer is someone who guards a body of a dead person over night before it is brought to burial in case there is no member of the family or friends that can do it. He must pray all night to keep evil at bay. It is a paying job that Yakov has done before so he is offered it now again.
Inside the house there is only Yakov, a dead body covered completely in a sheet and Mrs. Litvak, the dead man's widow who extremely old and odd. I have never heard of this costume of Shomer, but being stuck inside a house with a dead body sounds like good horror material from the beginning. At first the movie feels really generic. The usual horror stuff, the slow burn stuff, but as the movie progresses you realize that there is something completely different going on here. Not just the mythology though. This movie has no jump scares. You will be scared for sure, but that cheap trick hardly exists here. There are other things here that compensate big time. It is a very well made movie.
The movie also slightly touches on the subject of anti-Semitism, but only in a way that adds to the characters back story and not enough to make it a discussion about the new rise of anti-Semitism around the world. Which is a shame, it could have added even more to the movie. But it is pretty good as it is.
On the plus side, unlike most movies that depict Jewish people all of the cast here are Jewish or of Jewish descent which is cool. Lynn Cohen who plays Mrs. Litvak is the most familiar actress in the movie, I mostly recognized her from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire where she played Mags, but she has a long history on the small and big screen. Dave Davis plays the lead character of Yakov Ronen, and he is mostly an unknown actor. He carries the entire movie and he is excellent. The movie couldn't have worked without such a stellar performance.
It's just one of those movies that got lost because it is another Blumhouse movie and it came out during the pandemic and it only got a limited release in theaters. But if you feel like watching a great and different horror movie, this is the movie for you.
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