James Wan should watch this

Interesting horror film, based entirely around Jewish faith and folklore. Dave Davis is Yakov, a young lapsed Orthodox Jew hired to spend a night watching over the body of a recently deceased man (a tradition known as Shemira, the purpose of which is to protect the body from desecration, and ease the soul's transition from this life to the next). The only other person in the house is the man's elderly widow, who soon retires to bed. Left alone, Yakov dutifully begins reading psalms over the body, but soon suspects he is not as alone as he thought. It's a novel but simple premise; however Yakov is suffering from extreme guilt and borderliner PTSD over the death of his younger brother, and experiences hallucinations, for which he is taking medication. Neither he nor we can be entirely certain what is real.

This is a Jewish film. Producer Jason Blum, writer/director Keith Thomas (making his feature debut), star Dave Davis, cinematographer Zach Kuperstein, and composer Michael Yezersk, have all said how invested they were in showcasing a horror story centred around Jewish lore. And it is interesting to see one that doesn't involve golems or dybbuks (the entity here is called a Mazzik). The cast are very good, especially Davis, who as part of every scene (bar one flashback) carries the film. It's strong on atmosphere, and the suspense is racked up well. It's not perfect; the opening sequence (a support group for Orthodox Jews who have abandoned their faith) goes on too long and drags, some of the photography is too dark, and the final third frustratingly loses some of the tension that had been built so well, so when that thing that we've all been staring at the screen waiting for actually happens, it doesn't have anything like the impact it would have had say 20 minutes earlier. But it's good. And it's different. 7/10