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The vigil was written and directed by Keith Thomas. Is about a young man who is assigned the task of watching over a recently deceased person overnight in their home as an opening text informs us. This is a common practice in the orthodox Jewish community. When a loved one passes away, someone close to that person may sit with the body but when a close loved one is not available, sometimes someone will be paid to perform the services. Our lead character played by Dave Davis. He's assigned that difficult task and as you can imagine sitting in a house all night long with a dead body.
The director and lead star Dave Davis do such a good job of setting up a compelling character that you really care about it, makes for a great character for a horror film especially for this plot. What he's been assigned to do is technically a religious practice. Something that he might have done a little more easily in the past but since he's been feeling doubt and with his faith. It's not just about a dead body in a house. There's a lot of deep themes to the film. Through careful flashbacks, at just the right times you can understand why he's having a slight crisis of faith and how he might have to overcome that over the course of the night to survive, once things get really scary.
There's also a terrifying older woman in the house, played masterfully by Lynncohen who's really creepy in the movie. She plays the wife of the deceased, who is not exactly in the right state to watch over a dead body. That's why we have our lead character there, she often appears to scare them out of just throughout the course of the movie but also at times be a bit of an expository mouthpiece for things that we're supposed to know.
The film also has a really great way of sidestepping. We have to keep them in a house thing that often happens in lower budget horror in, that when our hero tries to leave the house. It feels as if this entity that wants to keep him there has overcome his body with a debilitating feeling, that every bone is breaking. It's a very clever way to not let him get too far away from the house and keep the budget tight.