A Small-Town Mystery Deepens in This Exclusive Clip from Retro Sci-Fi Thriller 'The Vast of Night'
Two teens in 1950s New Mexico discover a sound over the radio that leads to an extraterrestrial riddle.
Equal parts would-be Twilight Zone episode and old-fashioned sci-fi radio drama, Andrew Patterson's debut feature The Vast of Night takes us back in time to Cayuga, New Mexico in the late 1950s, when technology promised us a future Space Age and the rascally Soviets could be hiding around every corner. Two high school youngsters, switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick) and late-night radio host Everett (Jake Horowitz), stumble upon a strange interference over the radio waves one night that doesn't seem to be coming from any known source. When Everett asks his listeners to call in if they recognize the sound, the two uncover a global conspiracy involving the military, unexplained disappearances, and what some might call alien abduction.
We loved this film when we saw it at least year's Toronto International Film Festival -- it's such fun to watch, the two leads constantly bickering back and forth in a choppy, mid-'50s cadence, and the mystery at the center of it all is a thrilling, playful return to a cozy, antique way of storytelling when the nighttime was full of endless possibilities. The Vast of Night hits Amazon Prime next Friday May 29, but starting May 15 it also has a limited run across the nation's drive-in theaters -- an appropriately retro setting for this throwback thriller.
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