The Vast of Night: A Low-Key Ride in Atmospheric Horror

For writer-director Andrew Patterson, The Vast of Night must be an attempt of proclamation. And the movie does exactly that for the debutant. Made at a minuscule budget, this horror flick tells the world what he can do with a bigger crew and a meatier wallet.

The Vast of Night is about a switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick), and a radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) in a small town named Cayuga in 1950s New Mexico, who happens to observe a signal that interferes both their systems leading to the possibility that there is an unknown existence with them, hovering over the sleepy small town, that night. The entire movie happens within one night where the two characters try and figure out what this signal means using whatever they have at their disposal.

The set-up is brilliant, we see Fay work, switching phone calls from one place to another, swiftly managing the job with ease, while encountering a peculiar interference. Radio signal turns off, phone calls get cut, and a strange sound comes through a line. All of this happens in a 9-minute-long single shot, while we see only Fay working on her switchboard.

There are multiple long takes like these, peppered throughout the runtime, most of which aren’t necessarily there because of the maker’s obsession over long-takes. The long takes are an effective way at cutting down budget. The camera stays static, focused on the faces of characters, as they perform actions ranging from mundane chores to giving exposition. And the plot is moved along by exposition. This is where is subverts genre trappings. There are blocks of dialogues, monologues at times which explains the plot. But it works for the movie than against it, due to various reasons. For one it is well acted. Not just on screen, off-screen as well. There is a beautiful and gripping conversation on the phone with a stranger voice acted by Bruce Davis. Another reason why the lengthy expositions work is because the stories itself are so creepy and suspenseful, you instantaneously believe that the only way you can get to know of this is by narration.

While they aren’t focused on giving exposition and moving the plot forward, there is clap worthy cinematography (Miguel Ioann Littin Menz) and editing (Erick Alexander and Jared Bulmer) in place. One particular scene stands out, where the camera tracks from the switchboard to a basketball game to the radio booth, all in one shot, which literally took me from being laid back on the couch to the floor, while my eyes kept fixated on the screen. The shift from handheld to a moving vehicle (which is an 18-year old kid on a go-kart. Awesome!) is noticeable for those who watch closely, but you aren’t bothered by it. You are instead pulled right into the plot, becoming a part of the narrative that follows.

A lot of the narrative in the movie works because of the characterisation of the protagonists. Both of them are teenagers. They’re people with dreams and aspirations about life, yet are stuck at something that they’re good at, but doesn’t offer much future in the small town. They talk about everything from cold war to technological advancements (it gives way for a good laugh to sit in 2020 and think about what advancements have actually happened). They both aspire to leave the town and bring upon a change to their life, and this idea of wanting to leave makes us connect to them. They yearn for fame, attention. Which then makes sense to us that why they would be so interested at investigating a random signal they encountered at a random night.

The protagonists are novices who are thrown into a situation about which they have no idea about. And as they’re made to run to catch-up, we the audience move along with them. The characters are never ahead of the audience. And hence, they have to work with what they have at their disposal, use their wits to the fullest. The only source of investigation they have is their equipment, i.e. the radio and the switchboard which effectively finds its place in the narrative. Everett broadcasts the signal over his radio channel, to attract anyone who might know about the signal. Investigation then continue over phone calls, made by a stranger who responded to the signal that has been broadcasted over the radio. The plot moves ahead when a connection is made to a silent inhabitant of the town, whom then our protagonists visit.

The movie at times cut to shots pointed at a 1950s television. The introductory shot itself is such, wherein the title is displayed and the camera continues to move into the television, while we the audience are drawn into the television where the movie is suggested to be occurring. This is an obvious tribute to the paranormal shows back in the day, like The Twilight Zone. The movie plays out like an episode out of the show. And the similarities don’t end there. From 2001: A Space Odyssey to The Thing, to the recent Super 8, the movie reminds you of all that is best in the genre of sci-fi horror, but never looking like a rip-off. All of it is there, yet not there. All of it is suggested, like breadcrumbs for the avid viewer to pursue.

The horror isn’t in gore. You don’t see blood or disfigured zombies with axe or knife in hand. The horror is in the atmospherics. The mystery of this strange signal invokes suspense and tension while the setting helps to explore the cold war paranoia and government conspiracy trope effectively. The movie also shows belongingness to the era wherein it takes time out to acknowledge racism that was and is prevalent.

There are of course, misgivings. The lighting doesn’t work at all times. It took some time to get used to the lighting tone that they were going for. At one point the movie shows a tv screen again, which I couldn’t understand why and felt negating the introductory shot. But this isn’t a gigantic alien invasion movie or a seething horror saga. This is an independent movie outing where the cast and crew are more or less newcomers, trying to make a gripping and immersive movie, making use of every little thing at their disposal to the fullest (kudos to the immaculate production design) that relishes an era before the CGI and maybe that’s why I loved it. Sometimes, it’s better when things are left to imagination.

The Vast of Night is available in Amazon Prime.