Genre: Thriller
Director: Trey Edward Shults
Writer: Chad Taylor
Cast: Margaret Qualley
Plot: 1957
After the death of her estranged father Ezra, Rachel (Margaret Qualley) travels back home. She talks with Ezra’s rabbi about the next steps. Knowing that she is his only family left and that he had very little friends, they decide against having a funeral. The rabbi does remind her that her father would have wanted the custom of Shemira to be carried out. In the Jewish faith, as the soul hovers above the body after death, the shomeret accompanies a body between the time of death and burial - essentially preparing it for the afterlife.
Rachel inquires about this and is told that it is usually carried out by a third party but family members can also do it. Without much deliberation, Rachel says she would like to do it. He tells her that she will not be able to eat or sleep during this time. She says she is still willing to do it, since it is only 24 hours. The rabbi smiles and says that he is glad that she is re-embracing her faith and that he thinks she will grow from this experience.
Rachel enters a small two-room building adjacent to the synagogue. She enters a bare room that has a bench and some candles. There is a small window into another candle-lit room where the casket sits. Her main job is to comfort the body by reading psalms to it. She does this dutifully but it does grow tiresome. When she takes a break, she begins to think back on her relationship with her father. After some time elapses, she decides to pick back on the psalms. As she intensely stares at the casket, a breeze travels through the room, causing some cackling in the candles which frightens Rachel. After a beat, she is able to laugh at her own irrational fear.
After some time has elapsed, one of the psalms sparks a debate within Rachel’s mind and she begins talking to the casket as if it is God. She talks about how she saw this as an opportunity to repair her relationship with her father and her faith. She’s been estranged from both for quite some time. Actually, the fracturing of each relationship exacerbated the fracturing of the other. She asks God if the sins of her father are handed down to his kin.
With more time elapsed, she asks her father if he would like to hear his obituary. Instead of pulling out some small local paper, she pulls out the New York Times, which had an article covering Ezra’s death. As she reads it, it is revealed that Ezra was a notorious member of a Jewish-American organized crime group. The article notes that he and many of his other counterparts escaped prosecution, despite the murders they committed, escaped conviction. However, what set Ezra apart was his crimes outside of the group. Rachel finds tears rolling down her eyes before the door to the casket room creaks and this again makes her jump. She continues: Ezra was rumored to have molested more than two dozen children. Despite never being proven, this did lead to him being essentially socially isolated from the friends he once knew.
Rachel is in full tears at this point, when she gets to the final part. Preceded in death by his father, mother, and brother. Survived by a daughter. She is in full tears at this point, although her face also reads of anger. She bangs on the window, begging the casket to tell her the truth. She paces the room and is mad at herself for reading it. She tells the casket that she trusted him, as everyone trusts their parents. After some reflection, she calms herself down and starts to read the psalms again.
As she grows drowsy from that, she decides to get up and enter the room where the casket lies. She slowly approaches the casket and starts to clean it - which is not one of her required activities. She tells her father that this wasn’t about repairing her relationship with him as much as it was about coming to grips with what he had done. It is eerily silent as she opens up the casket to see her father one final time. However, the sadness on her face turns to shock as no one is the casket. Behind her, she can hear footsteps and someone blow out the candles, causing her to scream for help.
Rachel wakes up, realizing she had fallen asleep. However, as she gets reacquainted with her surroundings, she finds that two of the candles in the casket room has been knocked over. She runs in to try to put out the fire that is still small but is starting to spread. She looks around at her environment and realizes she would have plenty of time to push the casket out of the building before the fire gets worse. She has her hands on the casket but instead of moving it, she starts to open it. However, she decides against this and keeps it closes. She closes her eyes and starts to consider whether or not she should stay behind.
From outside, we see a dry-heaving Rachel leave the building by herself, without the casket. Her emotions cause her to fall to the ground. She crawls away in tears as the building burns behind her.
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