A Truly Unsettling Vast Night: A Review of "The Vast of Night"

UFOs. Unidentified Flying Objects. Most of us are familiar with the term. We’ve all heard the rumors and conspiracy theories about Area 51 and aliens from a different world. I, myself, have ventured to Roswell, NM out of curiosity of that wondrous possibility that we aren’t alone in the universe. Most of us make light of this possibility, in fact, we poke fun at it. There was even a joking attempt to storm Area 51 not too long ago. It seems like a joke, but what if aliens and their flying ships were all too real? It would be quite unsettling. The suspense of wondering who's out there in the universe and what their intentions are would kill the faint of heart. That is exactly what the film “The Vast of Night” aims to do to its audience: leave them on the dangerous precipice of wondering “What if?” The 2019 mystery sci-fi film, directed by Andrew Patterson and written by Andrew Patterson and Craig W. Sanger, takes place in the 1950s as two highschoolers, Fay Crocker (Sierra McCormick), a switchboard operator, and Everett (Jake Horowitz), a radio host, search for the source of a mysterious frequency that has descended onto their town. As they begin to unravel the mystery, the source of the sound becomes more mysterious and otherworldly than they ever would have dreamed of. From the moment this movie began, I was enthralled. It started with zoom into a 1950s Tv, playing what appeared to be an episode of something similar to “The Twilight Zone.” This immediately put me on edge. “The Twilight Zone” is known for its crazy, mind-bending episodes that leaves its viewers on edge and a little scared, so when the screen started to show the movie in its token black and white, and started playing that ominous yet nostalgic music, I was already in suspense. We’re soon introduced to our first main character: Everett. I liked Everett right off the bat. He was witty, charismatic, and a little mischievous. You could tell through his quick dialogue and swagger that he was a radio host before the movie even told you. Sure, he seemed a little full of himself, but what star doesn’t. I knew that he was our main character from the minute I saw him. I couldn’t say the same for Fay. She emerged from the background, unassuming. I thought she’d be on the screen for a few minutes and then just disappear. To my surprise, she stayed. She was the stereotypical nerd, and to be honest, toward the beginning of the film, she kind of annoyed me. She was everything Everett wasn’t. She was shy, unsure of herself and talked way too much. Now, I have nothing against a chatterbox, but Fay just kept on repeating herself. The writers really drove home the fact that Fay constantly needs reassurance, especially from Everett, despite the fact that she’s very intelligent. (I have to give the casting directors props here, because I can’t see anyone pulling off Fay like Sierra McCormick did in this movie. She has a nerdiness and girl-next-door quality that just made Fay’s character so distinct.) Just when I thought I had met all the main players of this game, Patterson threw in an unexpected one. As soon as Fay and Everett left the lit up school gym, the audience met the third, and arguably most important, main character: the night. The night truly was vast. As Fay and Everett walked through the quiet and dark town, it felt like the nighttime was falling in on them. This was enhanced by how their walking scenes were filmed, with Everett and Fay always being to the right of the screen but never in the center. It was like they were making room for this entity of night. This heavy presence is felt throughout the film. It emphasizes the thought that something is out there, but we just don’t know what. As the film goes on, Patterson focuses mostly on Fay, alone with the switchboard, and Everett, alone in the radio studio. It makes them feel isolated, especially from the rest of the town at the basketball game. As Fay and Everett start to realize, based off the mysterious noise on the radio and people seeing something in the sky, that something is in their town, the writers do something that I thought was very clever: they never say what people are seeing in the sky. They could have easily said it looked like a saucer or frisbee or something, but they purposely leave it very vague. They do this to increase the fear of the thing itself because what’s scarier than the unknown? As Fay and Everett adventure through town to uncover the source, the cinematography also left me on edge. The camera kept sweeping in a wide frame through the town’s streets, so much to the point where I thought something was going to pop out at me. Fay obviously shared my fear, because she starts to warn Everett to take the side of caution. She’s the one making sure everyone she knows that is not at the game is safe. She’s the one believing the facts. That is what made me really start to like Fay. Her fear for others seemed to make her more self-assured and brave. Everett, on the other hand, lost a lot of respect from me when he went into denial until the evidence was staring him straight in the face. This is where the direction lost me for a bit. I thought it would have been more impactful if we never saw what Everett and Fay eventually saw that night. I would have been wondering and the thoughts I would have come up with would have scared me more than what was shown on screen. Don’t get me wrong, the UFOs looked cool and believable, but them being shown at all made the movie lose some of the suspense it had. Luckily, Patterson more than made up for it with the last scene. When the basketball game is finally over, and the whole town goes home, they are left with nothing but a few clues of what happened that night. A car abandoned on Main Street. The switchboard operator’s door is wide open. A tape recorder left in the middle of nowhere. No one knows what truly happened that night, not even the audience and that is what left me with chills as the movie ended. The idea of aliens never perturbed me until I watched “The Vast of Night.” I find myself wondering what’s out there and if there were ever any people who found themselves in a similar dilemma as Fay and Everett. This movie put a smile on my face due to the fact that it was a well made film, but caused me to frown when it made me think of the implications of what it discussed. I encourage you to watch “The Vast of Night” and be similarly unsettled.