What If We’re All Aliens?

W hat if aliens came to Earth, but we were all too busy to notice? At a time when the U.S. government has recently released videos of aerial craft it has not identified, but we remain (somewhat understandably) occupied with . . . other things, it’s a question worth pondering. It’s also a question at the heart of The Vast of Night, the directorial debut of Andrew Patterson. The low-budget sci-fi film, recently released on Amazon Prime, uses the familiar conventions of the 1950s B-movie to engage deeper questions, not just about aliens but also about human life.

The Vast of Night takes us to a New Mexico town in the 1950s. It is a normal night, and just about everyone in town is at the high-school basketball game. Fay (Sierra McCormack) and Everett (Jake Horowitz) are a pair of high-school students who leave the game together but then separate for their respective jobs: Fay as a switchboard operator, and Everett as a radio DJ. Soon after Fay settles in for her shift, she starts getting strange accounts of things in the sky, reinforced by mysterious noises she is picking up. Linking up with Everett, she broadcasts them on his show, and he asks if anyone knows what they might be. An enigmatic listener calls in saying he can tell them, and . . . we’re off to the races.

It’s no accident that The Vast of Night is set in the ’50s. Patterson clearly aspired to the aesthetic of the kind of drive-in alien spectacle for which that era has become famous (and with a dash of early Spielberg thrown in for good measure). Even before the actual first scene of the film, a short intro sets it up as an episode of Paradox Theater, a fictional Twilight Zone pastiche that The Vast of Night is likely meant to be an “episode” of. The period authenticity is pervasive, even extending to technology so seemingly archaic despite its being in wide use within the lives of many still living.

But The Vast of Night is no mere homage to ’50s B-movies. For one, it avoids their frequent cheesiness. It also uses more-modern film techniques, most notably the long takes that make up much of the movie. Most distinguishing of all, however, is its thematic unity and consistency. Patterson uses a basic plot that could fit in easily in a double feature alongside The Day the Earth Stood Still or Invasion of the Body Snatchers for a message of subtle yet profound depth.

The main drama in The Vast of Night concerns communication, and its difficulty. You see this in almost every scene: the intentionally bewildering conversation of the opening moments; the jobs Everett and Fay hold; the obstruction of the truth from them by the limitations of other people, imposed either by society or by others themselves; the basketball game that bookends the film. At times, the defects of how we communicate can make us seem almost as aliens to one another, as everyday life and the limits of human experience get in the way of true understanding.

Occasionally the film’s technique and narrative do not live up to or service the depth of this theme. Some of its long takes, while almost always impressive, seem exhibitionistic. Occasional deliberate reductions in film quality are perhaps meant to remind us that we’re in Paradox Theater but serve more to distract. And viewers of the film will have to decide for themselves whether its ending is a fitting culmination of its general thrust.

But getting to that end is something anyone interested in well-made sci-fi should try to do. As for everyone else: If aliens do reveal themselves anytime soon, please try to look up from your phones long enough to take notice.