Andrew Patterson
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Later, an audacious extended shot (the creation of which recalls the DIY inventiveness of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead ) takes us all the way across town, brilliantly establishing the geography of this drama while simultaneously dazzling us with the sheer head-spinning logistics of its trajectory.
Or is it a supernatural point of view from a creepy entity like Sam Raimi’s “The Evil Dead” (1981)?
War of the Worlds (2005)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced The Vast of Night (2019)
Visuals Themes Music
They do so by leaning with enthusiasm into the sights and sounds of the period’s science fiction, beginning with an homage to The Twilight Zone and quickly segueing into clever references (in substance and in style) to War of the Worlds.
And while the clearest parallels here are to Orson Welles's War of the Worlds broadcast (the call letters of Everett's radio station are "WOTW") and the paranoid sci-fi flicks of the '50s, but also hints of They Live, while the alien abduction subplot is reminiscent of everything from Fire in the Sky to Mulder and Scully.
But that isn’t the only title it’s inspired by – from the name of the radio station (WOTW – War Of The Worlds , obviously) to including a family called the Grimaldis (the first characters to die in 1956 horror classic Invasion of The Bodysnatchers ), The Vast Of Night is stuffed with Easter eggs just itching to be uncovered by a genre nut.
Patterson is clearly using Orson Welles audio production of “War of the Worlds” as inspiration here with radio chatter and the irony is the film would most certainly work better in that medium.
Everett (Jake Horowitz), the beloved host of the town's local radio station — the call sign, WOTW, an unmistakable nod at Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast — is setting up recording equipment and chatting with Faye (Sierra McCormick), a brainy teen who works as the town's switchboard operator.
An out-of-this-world directorial debut from Edmond filmmaker Andrew Patterson, the 1950s-set science fiction thriller is an unabashed throwback to cinematic genre classics like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," an homage to vintage radio theater like "War of the Worlds" and a hat-tip to retro-style podcasts like "Welcome to Night Vale."
Citing Yann Demange’s underrated Belfast thriller ’71 as an immersive inspiration (alongside Gaspar Noé’s Irréversible ) , Patterson litters this increasingly dizzying mystery with playful nods to classic sci-fi chillers like Don Siegel’s 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers .
And while the clearest parallels here are to Orson Welles's War of the Worlds broadcast (the call letters of Everett's radio station are "WOTW") and the paranoid sci-fi flicks of the '50s, but also hints of They Live, while the alien abduction subplot is reminiscent of everything from Fire in the Sky to Mulder and Scully.
Superficially, with its quirky small-town location and wide-eyed sense of wonder, The Vast of Night recalls the suburban fantasy epics produced by Steven Spielberg in the 1980s (or, more specifically, such latter-day works of Amblinsploitation as Stranger Things or Super 8).
There’s an awful lot of Spielberg in Patterson’s tale (as there was in J.J. Abrams’ Super 8) and cynics may dismiss The Vast of Night as that 90s relic, the ‘calling-card film’.
More importantly, the pace resembles Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) more than J.J. Abrams’ “Super 8” (2011), so adjust your expectations accordingly.
And while the clearest parallels here are to Orson Welles's War of the Worlds broadcast (the call letters of Everett's radio station are "WOTW") and the paranoid sci-fi flicks of the '50s, but also hints of They Live, while the alien abduction subplot is reminiscent of everything from Fire in the Sky to Mulder and Scully.
First-time director Andrew Patterson, working from a script by James Montague and Craig W. Sanger, has made a low-budget alien-invasion movie inspired by radio dramas, 1950s TV and Michael Mann’s single-night thriller “Collateral,” among other big-screen suspensers.
Think of a Hickory game from director David Anspaugh’s “Hoosiers” (1986), but about an hour before tip-off with gentle Steadicam strolls and a soft, smoky haze over a lens that offers a slight emotional distance.
The simple existence of UFOs doesn’t exactly inspire wonder in audiences these days (the superior 2019 film The Vast of Night addressed this concern by setting its extraterrestrial tale in the 1950s).
It seems a pity The Vast of Night did not bother to go down more subversive existential routes as such a moment promises, which sets it apart from other memorable lo-fi sci-fi examples from the past decade, which includes such complex narratives as Coherence or Upstream Color (both 2013).