The Vast of Night: Sierra McCormick and Jake Horowitz interview

The Vast of Night is the 1950s New Mexico-set debut feature film from director Andrew Patterson. The story follows a young switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick) who is taken under the wing of sprightly radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz). Together they stumble across a strange audio frequency with implications for their small town and beyond.

Playing out almost in real-time, in dark tones with an experimental approach that even sees the screen go entirely blank at moments, the film makes for an ambitious but refreshingly unique cinematic experience, disorientating you as the story’s subjects are disorientated. Its exacting aesthetic captures the era as well as being packed with TV, movie and cultural references from the time from the space-race to classic television to The Twilight Zone.

The Vast of Night explores themes of racial divides as well as the unknown, no doubt with interesting parallels to our uncertain times.

We had the pleasure of speaking (albeit digitally) to its two main stars.

Sierra McCormick told us of her experience delving in the 1950s era, how her night-owl nature made her well-suited to their unusual shooting schedule and how her and Patterson bonded over their obsession with all things film.

Jake Horowitz shared how the script and Patterson instantly drew him to the project, the joys of working with him and his co-star McCormick and what he thinks people will take away from the film.

Sarah Bradbury

The Vast of Night is released on Amazon Prime on 29^th May 2020. Read our review here.