I first watched the indie sci-fi movieThe Vast of Nightat Fantastic Fest in 2019, and I still think about it five years later, shocked that the director still hasn’t made another movie since then.The Vast of Nightis a lo-fi sci-fi film set in the late 1950s one Friday night in the fictional desert town of Cayuga, New Mexico. While the whole town is at the high school for a big basketball game, teenager Faye (Sierra McCormick) is left to operate the telephone switchboard while local radio DJ Everett (Jack Horowitz) is manning the station for the night shift. The two soon start noticing strange interference on their lines,and reports of something strange in the sky above.
Director Andrew Patterson’sThe Vast of Nighthas the framework of a pulpy B-movie, but the execution of an indie thriller. As Everett and Faye race to figure out what’s emitting the frequencies in the skies above their town, they stumble into a much bigger, more terrifying mystery of strange visitors and people who walked into the desert never to return. The movie is dialogue-heavy, and in a lesser director’s hands, it could grow dull. But I foundThe Vast of Nightonly gets more tense as it continues. Knowing that it was a passion project for Patterson,who paid for the microbudget movie out of his own pocket,made me eager to see what he did next. Unfortunately, I’m still waiting.
The Vast Of Night Has A Fantastic 92% Rotten Tomatoes Score
The High Score Held Up Through Hundreds Of Reviews
Currently,The Vast of Nighthas a 92% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with 249 reviews.It’s easier for a movie to get a score that high when it only has a handful of reviews, but history has shown that the more reviews a movie gets, the more the score drops as initial excitement and bias give way to more reasoned reviews and hindsight. That makes it even more impressive thatThe Vast of Nighthas hundreds of reviews and is still in the 90s. It’s a testament to the excellent craftsmanship of the first-time director that it was so well-reviewed and will hold up decades from now. I’m certainly still thinking about it, and I first watched it half a decade ago.
The Vast of Nightwas lauded at the time of its release for its clever cinematography and bold direction that helped it transcend a pretty simple alien abduction story. We all know the trope of the first-time or student director who plays with traditional conventions and produces a film that just comes across as pretentious, butPatterson experiments in a way that elevates the film rather than dragging it down with ambitious but poorly executed ideas that don’t work.It’s never too much, but just enough that you recognize what he’s doing and appreciate it. There aren’t explosions and the aliens are never shown, but it’s as tense and gripping as anything I’ve seen.
The long, “one-take” tracking shot was actually four different practical shots stitched seamlessly together with CGI, recorded by a production assistant driving a go-kart through the different locations to get each tracking shot.
It takes a clear vision to hold the camera steady on someone with the slowest of close zoom-ins during a long monologue without losing a bit of tension, as he does during a scene where the protagonists interview Mabel, an old, reclusive woman, as she tells her abduction story. Likewise,there is one swooping, extended tracking shot as the camera moves through the small town at night and into the brightly lit high school gymnasium that takes skill and confidence to execute, as does the decision to cut to black in one scene. The naturalistic dialogue, the vintage props, and the revelation of the unknown Jake Horowitz and mostly unknown Sierra McCormick as protagonists Everett and Faye makeThe Vast of Nightfeel more authentically 1950s than any movie with an 8- or 9-figure budget.
His Name Wasn’t Even In The Credits Of His Own Movie
The excellence ofThe Vast of Nightis why it floors me that Andrew Patterson hasn’t released another movie yet. In hindsight, I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me. While he did a few interviews whenPrime Video picked upVastfollowing its successful festival circuit, Patterson has been quite reclusive since. It’s a stark difference from most first-time directors with a hit who want their name out there as much as possible. But Patterson is a guy who wasn’t even credited in his own movie;his name doesn’t appear in the opening or closing credits to maintain the feel of it being a lost episode of aTwilight Zone-like show. He even used a pseudonym, James Montague, for his lone co-writing credit.
It’s a credit to Patterson that he seemingly has no interest in fame, but in making art on his own terms and on his own timeline, rather than being snapped up by a studio and working in that system.
I find myself torn that he hasn’t released another movie yet. I lovedThe Vast of Nightso much that I’m eager to see what Patterson will do next. On the other hand, I lovedThe Vast of Nightso much that I’m worried nothing else Patterson does can live up to it, especially if he has a sophomore slump, as many directors do. It’s a credit to Patterson that he seemingly has no interest in fame, but in making art on his own terms and on his own timeline, rather than being snapped up by a studio and working in that system.The world was his oyster afterThe Vast of Night, and he refused all of it to do his thing.I have to respect that, even if it’s baffling.
Patterson’s Next Movie After The Vast Of Night Is In The Works - But We Don’t Know Much
The Cast Is Much Bigger And More Well-Known
That said,I was thrilled to learn in 2023 that he was working on another movie,The Rivals of Amziah King. Aside from a flurry of casting announcements at the time, and a quiet report that filming wrapped last summer, that’s it. We just don’t know much. The one thing that is clear, though, is that after the success ofThe Vast of Night, bigger names and bigger money are in play forAmziah King; fellow Texas native Matthew McConaughey is leading the cast, though Patterson is also bringing backVast’s Jake Horowitz to work with him. The cast is an impressive roster:
Outside of that, there’s not much info about it aside from a brief plot synopsis.The movie is described as a crime thriller following the young girl Kateri,whose life is upended when her mother dies and she’s pulled out of foster care. She reunites with her former foster parent, Amziah, who teaches her new skills and inner strength, which she then uses to fight for justice. Considering filming wrapped well over a year ago and there have been no updates since, it appears Patterson is again taking his time. I can’t say I mind. IfThe Rivals of Amziah Kingis made with the same creativity and character work asThe Vast of Night, it will be worth the wait.
The Vast of Night
The Vast of Night follows two teenagers in a small 1950s New Mexico town as they uncover a mysterious audio frequency during the early years of the space race. Their discovery leads to a night of intrigue and excitement that has significant implications for their town’s history.
