Local actor Dave Davis scores major film role in ‘The Vigil’
By ALAN SMASON, Exclusive to the CCJN
Dave Davis vividly remembers the period of isolation and loneliness he felt during the filming of “The Vigil,” the supernatural horror film in which he currently stars. It was the fall of 2018 and, when not in front of a camera on a nearby set, he found himself living in a barren and lonely Borough Park apartment in Brooklyn with few possessions.
Dave Davis on the set of “The Vigil” now showing nationally. (Photo courtesy of BoulderLight Pictures)
Like the character of Yacov Ronen which he plays in the film, he was all alone in the world facing his demons by himself.
Although he had been raised in a culturally Jewish New Orleans home, he had been plunged into a world totally foreign to him, that of an insular Orthodox haredi community who spoke mostly in Yiddish.
“I had never done that much work by myself before at that extent,” he told the CCJN in an exclusive phone interview. Indeed, Davis is on camera for most of the film’s scenes, playing the role of a recently estranged member of his haredi community who is hired to be a shomer and guard a body through the night prior to its burial.
“I just sort of lived in that silence and that emptiness because when the camera’s rolling that’s the fun part, but it’s the work leading up to it, trying to understand Yacov, the work on the dialect, the combination of all the physical and mental challenges that the role presents, that was what was so difficult,” he explained.
Forced to come to terms with the religious upbringing he has latterly shunned, Yacov experiences both a psychological and metaphysical presence of horror, representing a Jewish demonic presence known as a mazzik, the lesser known of the triad of Jewish monsters which also includes the golem and dybbuks.
Currently showing in general release, the film is written and directed by Keith Thomas, a graduate with a masters degree in Jewish Education from Hebrew University in New York. Thomas selected Davis to play the leading role of Yakov after having seen him portray an ill-fated punk rocker in the 2017 film “Bomb City,” which garnered him critical acclaim.
Thomas knew that the role of Yakov was critical to the success of the film. He later told Davis when he saw him on the screen his “Jewdar” went off and he knew he had found his Yakov.
Davis, a veteran of films like “The Big Short,” “Logan” and last year’s “Greyhound” with Tom Hanks and television shows such as “The Walking Dead” and “True Detective,” worked closely with Thomas to introduce the concept of the mazzik to the cinematic world.
“I think the mazzik represents Yacov’s personal demons – we all have them,” Davis continued. “There had never been a visualization of one before and it gave us a lot of freedom as creators.”
According to Jewish legend, mazziks came into the world on the night between the first and second day of Creation, Davis elaborated. “These Jewish demons are less about punishment or being sent from hell to get you and they’re more like these free-roaming animalistic things that just exist,” he added. “They came into existence and have their own paths and desires separate from anything relating to God.”
“The Vigil” was edited in 2019 and made its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Things were going well with later showings around the world in Spain, France, Russia, Australia, South Korea, the United Kingdom and throughout South America.
But the worldwide pandemic prevented its general release in United States theaters until now.
Director-writer Keith Thomas.
Davis credits Thomas’ script as crucial to the beauty of the film. “I really think about it as a story about personal faith and community and mental health,” he mused. “I mean it really touches on a lot of stuff.”
Heightening the tension and suspense in the film is a modern soundtrack by composer Michael Yerzerski with special sound effects by Juan Campos. According to Davis, Thomas wrote a good deal of the suspenseful music into the script and he and cinematographer Zach Kuperstein worked closely prior to production to create storyboards and detailed shot lists that added to the anxiety levels of the film.
Davis prepared for the film by emerging himself into the religious observant Brooklyn community and collaborating with Thomas on developing the dialogue in the film. It was important for him to research the dialect and to learn how the people speak naturally there.
“I was constantly trying to bring in little pieces of authenticity and character. Certain things we changed here and there,” Davis noted.
One of his most difficult challenges was learning to improvise in Yiddish. “Not being a Yiddish speaker, it was important for me to have some extra bullets in the chamber,” he explained.
The insular world of the Borough Park community was also jolting to Davis. “My experience with Judaism prepared me in some ways, but it did not really prepare me for the introduction to that world. It’s very extreme,” Davis said. “It was eye opening to learn about that world (and) to learn about the struggles of that community.”
Many young people are challenged because they are unprepared to deal with the world at large, he said. “It’s my opinion that many people are under-educated,” Davis emphasized.
Demons like the mazzik are used by older members of the community to keep younger members in check, he said.
“This community, especially the one is New York, is born out of this fear from the Holocaust, from the pogroms,” Davis opined. “The fact they have so many children is a direct correlation to the fact that so many people were lost.”
He considers much of this anguish as a generational trauma and believes these are the emotions that contribute to the strengthening of the mazzik depicted in the film. He believes Yakov is forced to struggle bravely against the mazzik over the course of that single evening in order to find his place in the world.
Also playing in the film opposite Davis is Menashe Lustig, who plays Reb Shulem, Yakov’s mentor and spiritual advisor. His hiring of Yakov as a shomer is his thinly veiled attempt to bring him back to his former community. It is a task Yakov dreads, but accepts because he needs the money.
“With acting the most important thing you can do is listen,” Davis continued “So, when you have a great actor with you, you have a lot to listen to.” That contrasts with many of the scenes in the film, which have Davis pictured by himself contending with the mazzik. “When you’re by yourself, you have to listen to your own thoughts,” he said. “You have to listen to the noises around you and you have to listen to your fear, your own doubt.”
Davis also was thankful to have had several scenes with the noted actress Lynn Cohen (“Sex in the City” and “The Hunger Games”). She plays Mrs. Litvak, the widow spending the night in the same apartment with Yakov. “This was her last film before she passed away,” Davis groaned.
Dave Davis, center, as the lead in “Hamlet.” (Photo courtesy New Orleans Shakespeare Festival)
A graduate of Tulane University with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, Davis played “Hamlet” at the age of 22 for the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane. Prior to taking on the role of Yakov, he labored for ten years as an actor in New York and Los Angeles. During the current health crisis, with productions halted worldwide, he returned home to New Orleans last summer.
While he has worked on other projects yet to be released and has others in pre-production, Davis was happy to see “The Vigil” finally receive its general release in the United States.
“One of the most fascinating things about delving into this character was how easily I could have been in that community had my great-grandparents had a different attitude towards Americanization,” he mused.
Otherwise, he might be confined to an insular community and living his entire life within a three-block radius, afraid to leave because “a demon might get me.”
His ability as an actor was put to the challenge with this film. “There were certain scenes that were more emotional than others,” he admitted and he found himself channeling many of the emotions he felt from the depth of his own loneliness and his own personal confusion.
“The really difficult part was getting into that mindset and staying there for the duration of the shoot,” he concluded.
“The Vigil,” written by Keith Thomas and starring Dave Davis is currently playing at the Prytania Canal Place Theater, 333 Canal Street (3rd Floor) with showings now through Thursday at 2:00, 6:00 and 10 p.m. daily. For more information, call 504-290-2658.
