For lovers of old-school sci-fi movies, a new release has just landed on Amazon Prime called The Vast of Night which might just fit the bill nicely.
Set in 1955 in small-town New Mexico over one night, our young main players are teenage switchboard operator Fay and radio DJ Everett.
With the local townsfolk ensconced in the gym cheering on their basketball team, outside something weird is afoot. Fay and Everett are hearing strange sounds on their airwaves and their night turns into an increasingly spooky chase for answers.
This is a really smart, inventive and impressive debut for unknown filmmaker Andrew Patterson. He ramps up the suspense with some nifty tricks of the trade but in a way which ingeniously reboots the retro feel - and that's not an easy landing to make. But make it, he does.
The two leads are utterly charming, which of course helps.
I feel like The Vast of Night has just snuck up on me with so little fanfare and it's 100 percent my kind of sci-fi from a first-time filmmaker we shall most certainly be hearing from again. The '50s setting feels as fresh as yesterday with the breakneck pace of the narrative offset by the dreaminess of the delivery.
Four fabulous stars.
