The Vast of Night Serves Up 1950s Sci-Fi Minimalism

There’s an earnest air to the simple sci fi of The Vast of Night. Right from the first scene, the film literally broadcasts itself as an episode of a Twilight Zone–style anthology, and the 1950s setting presents an allegory via dialogue spun around building an alien conspiracy. Within that template, this film certainly hits its target of fitting the era and favoring big ideas almost entirely through the words of its characters. Outside of that format, however, such a story does little to escape from its rigid retro track.

While such a film could be seen as mostly minimal for its limited locations and characters, director Andrew Patterson doesn’t downplay the direction, which lets scenes linger and the camera freely roam across the small town of Cayuga, New Mexico. We’re led into the local high school, where a basketball game is about to begin and the whole gym is buzzing. The loudest voice calling most of the shots is Everett (Jake Horowitz), astute enough in electronics to get things up and running. His knowledge of tape recorders attracts Fay (Sierra McCormick), a fellow student hoping she can break into radio. Even though Everett is talking to multiple people and has a radio broadcast to host, he still makes time to teach her how to record.

Jake Horowitz and Sierra McCormick in The Vast of Night. Amazon Studios

The two teens hit it off pretty quickly for a friendship that starts with Everett comparing Fay’s voice to a mouse. Even when out of the gym and away from the crowds, they’re constantly buzzing about their hopes and dreams while trying to handle the tech. Their conversations continue as we follow them throughout Cayuga, predicting what the future may hold based on things they’ve read and theories they dream.

Once we get to know them well enough in a Tarantino way of carrying on, it’s down to business once Everett heads off to the radio station and Fay to her job as a switchboard operator. On duty, Fay runs across a transmission with a weird sound, unlike anything she has ever heard before. Unsure of what it may be, she contacts Everett; he’s not sure about it either, and they make it their mission that night to figure it out, even broadcasting the sound over the air to check whether any listeners have a clue. The further they progress, the closer they come to unearthing a spectacular secret.

Sierra McCormick in The Vast of Night. Amazon Studios

There’s a certain boldness in the film’s patience to let scenes go on and its trust in the audience to be engaged enough to follow the mystery. Several scenes feel as though they’re straight out of a play the way the divulging dialogue carries on. Though intriguing when Everett and Fay are traversing from point A to point B, most of their conversations happen in their stationary jobs, car rides, and house visits. Patterson is gutsy enough to mix things up by even dropping the visuals entirely during scenes of long passages, leaning in heavy on the wonders of radio being the theater of the mind. That being said, he also favors unique transitions with the camera, as in the most elaborate sequence where the camera leaves the switchboards, zooms through the parking lot, takes a peek in at the basketball game, and then finds its way to Everett.

There’s such faith in the filmmaking that it’s a bit disheartening to report how its amusing meanderings don’t add up to much. Those hoping for some grand twists will be dismayed, as will those seeking some fascinating allegory to deliver on that storytelling. Though the film continuously spins its wheels until they nearly fall off, the spin is quite rousing from more of a showcase of what this director can do with such simple material. But even with all the unique tricks and strong techniques, there’s little present within The Vast of Night to warrant being longer than your average Twilight Zone episode.