Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 25, 2021

Filmmaker Keith Thomas, the director of the horror hit The Vigil, says he believes in telling authentic and undiscovered stories of human experience from different cultural perspectives. With The Vigil, the first-time director presents a story that is steeped in ancient Jewish lore and demonology.It follows Yakov Ronen (Dave Davis), a financially struggling Hasidic Jew who recently left his community. He reluctantly accepts an offer from his former rabbi to take on the responsibility of an overnight shomer, the ritualistic practice of looking after a dead body. But during the course of the night, he is targeted by a malevolent spirit known as a Mazzik. Hollywood Horror Film The Vigil to Release in India.

Thomas, who is from the Jewish community, said the film has an authentic appeal for audiences as it has been made from an insiders perspective.I tend to prefer stories that are rooted in authentic cultural perspectives rather than generalized experience. Give me a unique supernatural entity over the traditional ghost or vampire any day, Thomas told PTI in an email interview.The filmmaker said he wanted to create a film that dealt with themes of trauma and memory through the lens of the Jewish culture and faith. The Gray Man: Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans Paid $20 Million Each for Russo Bros Netflix Film.

I was also looking for a debut subject that felt unique and at the same time personal. There are very few Jewish horror films and even fewer that are truly Jewish in their approach, he added. One of the reasons for the lack of Jewish horror movies is that the community in itself is not very superstitious, Thomas said.There are stories about the evil eye and various accounts of demons but because there isnt a devil or a hell as there are in other faiths, supernatural evil isnt a common theme. I do think it is an untapped vein of horror and I hope there will be more Jewish horror films, he added.

The movie, which is streaming on Amazon Prime Video, also explores themes of isolation, grief, pain and suffocation. The director said he used a lot of his own experiences to tell the story.I pulled from my own psyche a lot. I rooted around in my memories both to find scares which are so subjective and emotionally resonant character beats.I like writing characters who are in the midst of crisis and plumbing emotional depths. For me, horror themes go hand in hand with personal struggles, Thomas said.

Asked why it was important for him to make a Jewish film about Jewish pain, the director said the theme worked well with the genre. A Jewish horror film, in my mind, needs to deal with concerns that are important to the community.And for this community, the Hasidic community, the trauma of history weighs very heavily, he said. During the Holocaust in the 1940s, the Hasidic community was particularly targeted by the Nazis as their clothing and other distinctive practices made it difficult for them to hide. Thomas said he did a lot of research while developing the script, especially around the mythology of the Mazzik a real demon from ancient Jewish lore.

I did not know about the Mazzik before writing the script. I came across it in some arcane literature, very little of which has been translated In pre-production, we had an amazing team of consultants to ensure that all of the aspects about the community, the religious expression, the signs and symbols, were accurate, he added. Also, in reality, the tradition of sitting as a shomer is quite beautiful, he said. I never (sat as a shomer) but I do know many friends and family members who have. None of them have experienced anything supernatural and the ritual itself is quite a beautiful one, he added. The film is executive produced by Hollywood producer Jason Blums Blumhouse Productions banner.

Thomas said the studio liked The Vigil a lot after the movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2019. The director is now collaborating with Blumhouse for a new take on Stephen Kings acclaimed 1980 novel Firestarter. Blumhouse was very impressed with The Vigil.They saw it after it premiered at TIFF and I met with them a few weeks later. That is what led to my making the new adaptation of Firestarter for them, he added.

Thomas said he had never thought about a career in filmmaking until he was bitten by the writing bug.I never set out to be a filmmaker. I wanted to be a physician and had a career in clinical research before the writing bug sidelined my focus. I was fortunate that I was able to use my time as a screenwriter while still working a full-time day job to learn the ropes of filmmaking. It took a decade of toiling away in the trenches to get to this point, he said. Thomas, however, believes that his prior experience will help him in navigating the unpredictable film industry. I may have come to it later in my life than most I am in my mid-40s but I feel as though my previous experience provides me with a balanced approach to what is a very unpredictable industry, he said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, Sports Grind Entertainment Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)

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The Vigil Director Keith Thomas: Prefer To Tell Stories of Human Experience Rooted in Authentic Cultural Perspectives - Sports Grind Entertainment

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