Amazon's Prime Video streaming service is
carving out a reputation for itself as the
premiere stop for quality sci-fi content.
Between recent original series like Upload
and Tales from the Loop and strategic acquisitions
like The Expanse, it's a good time to be an
Amazon subscriber with a geek streak.
The surprise hit currently burning up the
charts on Amazon Prime Video certainly fits
into this pattern. It's called The Vast of
Night, a 2019 sci-fi film that sadly never
had the chance to reach the wide audience
that it deserved in theaters. Set in the 1950s
in New Mexico, The Vast of Night centers around
a switchboard operator named Fay Crocke and
a radio DJ called Everett. When the two teenagers
discover a strange audio frequency, they team
up to investigate its origins.
James Montague and Craig W. Sanger co-wrote
The Vast of Night, which is the directorial
debut of Andrew Patterson. With a keen eye
and a unique approach to directing, Patterson
demonstrates serious cinematic chops. It's
no wonder the movie won the Audience Award
for Best Narrative Feature at Slamdance and
was a runner-up for People's Choice at the
Toronto International Film Festival.
Audiences and critics don't always agree about
the quality of a new movie, but The Vast of
Night is already a unanimous crowd-pleaser.
Peter Rainer of KPCC's FilmWeek said:
"It's remarkably sharp, funny, and ominous.
A terrific debut."
"Everett, can I bring you my tape recorder
so you can show me how it works?"
"I don't know what you just said, but you
sound like a mouse being eaten by a possum."
Mark Kermode at The Guardian agreed with that
assessment, adding:
"That a film with such an apparently familiar
narrative can keep us this intrigued is a
credit to the filmmakers, particularly Patterson,
from whom we should expect to hear much more
in the future."
James Berardinelli of ReelReviews similarly
emphasized the quality of the film's storytelling,
even in the absence of eye-burning visual
effects, saying:
"It's a stark reminder that ideas are more
important than production budgets in crafting
compelling science fiction."
Now that streaming audiences have the opportunity
to consume Patterson's creation en masse,
the verdict is officially in: The Vast of
Night is a triumph. It's a little counter-intuitive,
but so many sci-fi films fail because of their
bloated budgets. An over-reliance on the dazzling
visual effects often comes at the expense
of plot and character development, but Patterson
is clearly a filmmaker who understands that
story is everything.
While The Vast of Night isn't a horror film,
it does have plenty of tense moments and a
pervasive sense of unease.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Patterson
opened up about the spooky tales that influenced
his film, beginning with the Kecksburg Incident
of December 1965. He explained:
"A lot of the plot for Everett, the DJ character,
was inspired by the mystery surrounding a
situation called the Kecksburg Incident, where
a car-sized, acorn-shaped device dropped out
of the sky and a local DJ started getting
calls."
Residents of the small town in Pennsylvania
believed that debris ended up in the woods,
causing U.S. military members to perform a
sweep. Astronomers verified the streak in
the sky and seismographs recorded the sonic
booms that occurred, but the Air Force officially
stated that nothing was found. Describing
the incident, Patterson added:
"There's a part of the Kecksburg mythology
where they went and looked at the trees where
this item, this acorn thing, smashed down,
and the branches are still broken in ways
that indicate something very forceful ripped
through. We wanted that in our movie."
Other true-life events that inspired The Vast
of Night were the disappearances of three
teenagers that weren't solved until 44 years
after the fact. In 1970, Jimmy Williams, Thomas
Michael Rios, and Leah Gail Johnson went missing
from Sayre, Oklahoma, just a year after three
other adults from the area vanished without
a trace.
Law enforcement finally solved the disappearances
in 2013, using new sonar equipment to discover
both trios' cars submerged in a reservoir
near the town. Patterson said:
"Both cars were found right next...to each
other, under 12 feet of water, with all the
skeletons of the missing parties accounted
for...That was an important anecdote for me,
just knowing that things like this do happen
and they have very logical explanations."
Clearly, Patterson pulled a lot of inspiration
from the world around him. If The Vast of
Night ushers in a new age of plot-driven science
fiction storytelling like many believe it
might, then the future of the genre will be
a bright one indeed.
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