In the twilight of the 1950s, on one fateful night in New Mexico, a young switchboard operator Fay and charismatic radio DJ Everett discover a strange audio frequency that could change their small town and the future forever.
“The Vast of Night” moves at a slow, restrained pace. As the film progresses, you realize that this aspect is what helps build up the tension and suspense throughout. Director Andrew Patterson delivers an impressive directorial debut, with an occasional nod to Spielberg’s “Close Encounter of the Third Kind” and Robert Zemeckis’ “Contact.”
The story takes place in the 1950s and centers on radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) and switchboard operator Fay Crocker (Sierra McCormick). They both live in the small town of Cayuga, New Mexico and the events of the film transpire over one night while the rest of the town is at the high school basketball game. While listening to Everett on the radio as he begins the evening news, his broadcast is interrupted by a strange and ominous clicking sound. Fay calls Everett to tell him what happened and plays a recording of the sound she made. Unable to identify it, he decides to play it on air, asking anybody who might be listening to call in and let him know what it might be.
Shortly thereafter, he receives a phone call from a man who calls himself Billy (Bruce Davis). He states that many years earlier, he worked in the military and that one time, he was sent on a covert mission along with some other men out in the desert to bury some large irregularly-shaped camouflaged items and any time he was near a radio, he heard the exact same sound that Everett played. He states that the sound is coming from the skies from the visitors that frequent the town and its surrounding areas under the blanket of night. As the night evolves, Everett and Fay receive another phone call from a woman named Mabel (Gail Cronauer), who lives on the outskirts of town and when they visit her, she tells them a story about her son being abducted by the visitors of the sky many years before. Initially skeptical but now overwhelmed with fear and dread, Everett and Fay must decide what to do next but as strange occurrences befall the duo on their trek back into town, they slowly realize that Billy and Mabel’s stories might not be as far-fetched and fantastic as they originally thought.
“The Vast of Night” is filmed utilizing a plethora of long, uninterrupted shots, akin to watching a stage play. I haven’t seen a movie incorporate this facet in a very long time and it is what kept my attention the whole way through. Director Andrew Patterson and cinematographer M.I. Littin-Menz feature impressive continuous tracking shots that start at one location and follow the lead characters to another, several blocks away, allowing us to concentrate on the interplay between the characters as well as the superbly-written 1950s dialogue. Instead of the customary cuts between two characters in a scene, we get extensive monologues, some that last five or more minutes and we are focused on just one character as they speak their lines. Occasionally, we cut away to the person listening but the focus is primarily on the character speaking.
The film reminded me of “The Blair Witch Project,” not in terms of subject matter but in how the filmmakers allowed the audience to utilize their imagination for what might be out there, sparkling in the night sky above, instead of actually showing it all on the screen in front of you. We never know if the visitors are friendly or destructive and that propels the film even more as it leaves that observation up to the viewer. Although the ending of the movie pays homage to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” it does so in a more restrained and low-key manner, avoiding that film’s grandiose and towering conclusion. As I stated earlier, “The Vast of Night” is slow-moving and deliberate so if you go into this expecting “Aliens” or “War of the Worlds,” you will be sorely disappointed. Instead, try to open your mind and watch a superb character-driven narrative and a first-class sci-fi thriller.
Available to stream on Amazon Prime Video Friday, May 29th
