- Yakov Ronen: So, Shulem, who is the deceased?
- Reb Shulem: He's Rubin Litvak, did you know him?
- Yakov Ronen: No.
- Reb Shulem: He was a good man, a little weird. He was a Holocaust survivor who made it through the war, but lost his entire family there. After the war, he started a family here, but then he became a recluse, estranged from his kids and grandchildren. He hadn't left his home in years, it's a really sad story.
- Yakov Ronen: I never saw him out.
- Reb Shulem: He used to say that whenever he stepped out of his house it was like he was in absolute agony.
- Yakov Ronen: And the other Shomer, why was he leaving?
- Reb Shulem: The other Shomer just ran out, I trusted him, he's family, but he left the job because he was afraid.
- Yakov Ronen: Afraid?
- Reb Shulem: That's what he said.
- Yakov Ronen: What was he afraid of?
- Reb Shulem: I knew right away you would take this job. And I know you're doing it for the money. It's nothing to be ashamed of. I honestly wanted to ask you because sitting the vigil, it brings you closer to the community. Wow... this is truly God's plan.
- [Yakov looks at him]
- Reb Shulem: Oh I'm sorry. It's just that when you sit the vigil, it's holy. It brings you back to us.
- Reb Shulem: The mortuary guys will be here at dawn.
- [prays in Hebrew]
- Reb Shulem: The mortuary guys will be here
- [looks at clock which reads 11:45]
- Reb Shulem: in five hours.
- Reb Shulem: Mr. Litvak's wife suffers from Alzheimer's and is quite frail. She'll likely sleep through the night. It'll be quiet.
- Mrs. Litvak: Why did you come here?
- Yakov Ronen: I'm Yakov, Mrs. Litvak, I'm the Shomer, I'm here to protect and comfort your husband's soul.
- Mrs. Litvak: Protect it from what?
- Mr. Rubin Litvak: [Yakov follows a voice to the basement and sees a tape playing on TV with Mr. Litvak talking, Mrs. Litvak standing behind him] -Once told me that these demons who destroy us, who are born between the days of creation, given life but no soul and no form. These are not beings in the true sense of the word. They do not have a will, a connection to the Higher Power, but they are animalistic. These demons, they are parasites, the Mazzikin are interchangeable with the shedim, but I've spent the last five decades studying the one who followed me home from Buchenwald. I do not know where it came from originally, but what it has shown me is very, very old. I suppose it was lying in wait, hibernating in its way in the forest. Dormant until my pain awakened it. The Massik appears as a figure with its head turned like so, but all the way around. It is damned to look backwards, to stare in the past. This demon, it showed me dreadful things. 10 years ago I found an inscription in a text by Moses ben Shem-Tov. It says: The only way to escape the Mazzik is to burn its true fact the first night it appears, but if you do not do this by dawn, it will never leave you. For me, this time has long passed. When I am gone, the Mazzik will find another broken person, someone else chained to some terrible pain they cannot let go.
- [Yakov sees Mrs. Litvak mouthing something behind her husband and peers closer to the screen]
- Mr. Rubin Litvak: When it finds its next host, it will slowly consume their soul, just as it did to me. Chewing, gnawing down on the spiritual aspects, the five essences of us all. It worms its way through Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, and Chayah, and finally to Ychidah, the direct link to Hashem.
- Mrs. Litvak: [on the tape] Behind you.
- Mr. Rubin Litvak: [Yakov's eyes widen in terror] And so I make these tapes, I write it down, put it on the walls, explain it, in the hopes that whoever finds the Mazzik next, won't be doomed, consumed as I was.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: [on phone] Yakov, it's Dr. Kohlberg.
- Yakov Ronen: Doctor Kohlberg! Baruch Hashem, I'm uh, I'm not doing so great.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Why? What's wrong?
- Yakov Ronen: I'm seeing things and hearing things, it's a lot. And I took a tablet, one of the Ativan a little while ago, but I...
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Seeing who, Yakov? Who are you seeing?
- Yakov Ronen: I don't know.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Where are you, right now?
- Yakov Ronen: I'm in Boro Park, I took a job as a Shomer for the night, Reb Shulem is paying me, so...
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Are you safe?
- Yakov Ronen: I don't know. I think so.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: These things you're seeing, do you think that they're real?
- Yakov Ronen: No, they can't be. Dr. Kohlberg, the man who was living here and his wife, I think that they went crazy together, living in the house. She's got very bad dementia, it's very sad, and he was obsessed with demons.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Demons?
- Yakov Ronen: Something called a Mazzik.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: And is this what you think you've been seeing? A demon?
- Yakov Ronen: Shadows, shadows.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Yakov, we talked about what happened to your little brother, about post traumatic stress, and your fears.
- Yakov Ronen: I know, I know.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Tell me, Yakov, is your heart racing? Ferocious? Like it's gonna break your ribs?
- Yakov Ronen: Yes.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: And you're sweating?
- Yakov Ronen: Uh huh.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Are you shaking?
- Yakov Ronen: I'm trying to calm down.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Yakov, tell me what it is that you're seeing. You said that it's a person.
- Yakov Ronen: It's shadows, like someone in the shadows.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: That person that you see, the one that's in the shadows, do you think that he's really there watching you?
- Yakov Ronen: No, of course not, I know he's not.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Excellent, excellent, that's good. Now, Yakov, I want you to take your time and think about this. Can you describe this person?
- Yakov Ronen: Blurry, it's always, I don't, I d-, it's blurry.
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: I understand. That's fine.
- [pause]
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Is his head turned backwards? Can you tell me?
- Yakov Ronen: What?
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Is his head turned around, Yakov?
- [sound of bones crunching, Yakov sees Mr. Litvak's head moving under the sheet]
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: What do you see? Yakov?
- Yakov Ronen: [gets another call] Dr. Kohlberg, can you hang on for just a second?
- [switches call]
- Yakov Ronen: Hello?
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: [different voice] Yakov, hi, it's Dr. Kohlberg, I just got your message and I'm sorry it's taken me a little bit to call you back. I hope everything's alright, Yakov?
- Yakov Ronen: Dr. Kohlberg, can you hang on for one second, please?
- [switches call]
- Yakov Ronen: Hello?
- Burech: Yakov.
- Yakov Ronen: Who is this? You need to leave me alone.
- Burech: Why did you let me die?
- [screams into the phone]
- Yakov Ronen: You said you had a question.
- Reb Shulem: I need you to be a Shomer, tonight.
- Yakov Ronen: Ah, no.
- Reb Shulem: I will pay you.
- Yakov Ronen: No.
- Reb Shulem: No? I know you could use the money, I know you have trouble with the rent.
- Yakov Ronen: How do you know that?
- Reb Shulem: [shrugs] Why's it matter? I will give you $200 cash, right now.
- Yakov Ronen: For how long?
- Reb Shulem: 5 hours. From now until the morning, that's all. We had someone, but he changed his mind and left suddenly.
- Yakov Ronen: 200? I'll do it for five.
- Reb Shulem: 300.
- Yakov Ronen: You came to me, right?
- Reb Shulem: Yeah.
- Yakov Ronen: You're desperate, right? You need me, right? Okay, so $500.
- [in English]
- Yakov Ronen: I used to do this all the time. People in the community that don't have any family, and no friends, it's me, okay? I'm watching the body.
- Reb Shulem: I'll give you $400, not a dollar more.
- Yakov Ronen: I'm going crazy.
- [dials phone]
- Dr. Marvin Kohlberg: Hello, you're reached the voicemail of Dr. Marvin Kohlberg, I can't take your call at the moment, but please leave a message including your name and phone number, and I'll call you back as soon as possible. If this is a medical emergency, please hang up and dial 911, thank you.
- Yakov Ronen: Hey, Dr. Kohlberg, this is Yakov Ronen and, I'm sorry to call you in the middle of the night, I don't want to bother you, but I'm having a little bit of trouble right now. Um, I'm seeing things and I'm hearing things. Um, it's worse than it's ever been before, and um, I uh, I'm almost out of the pills, so I was really hoping to talk to you. I don't think that I need to go back to the hospital, um, but I would like to talk to you as soon as possible. So if you please could just get back to me, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.
- [hangs up]
- Yakov Ronen: '
- Mrs. Litvak: Do you know my children?
- [Yakov shakes his head]
- Mrs. Litvak: I drove them away, as far as they could go. They think they left on their own accord, that it was their choice. But I drove them away. I drove them away. You know why I made them leave?
- [Yakov shakes his head]
- Mrs. Litvak: This is not a place for children. It was a bunker in the wilderness, a place you go to, but never return from. Do you know my husband?
- [Yakov shakes his head]
- Mrs. Litvak: He was broken by memories. Those kind of memories that you saw.
- [Yakov's eyes widen]
- Mrs. Litvak: They bite, they bite and the biting never stops. He was so lost he didn't know what to do.
- Yakov Ronen: Hello, Mrs. Litvak, I'm extremely sorry for your loss.
- Mrs. Litvak: Who is this man? I thought you were getting a shomer.
- Reb Shulem: He will be the shomer tonight.
- Mrs. Litvak: No.
- Reb Shulem: He's an experienced shomer, he sat the vigil for Moshe Kellner, Chaim Sturman.
- Mrs. Litvak: He won't work.
- Reb Shulem: I know that you had a very difficult and upsetting day, but this will be good, it'll be good.
- Mrs. Litvak: He needs to leave now! You have to leave now.
- Mrs. Litvak: It won't let you leave.
- Yakov Ronen: We have to go now.
- Mrs. Litvak: I've left many times, but where is there for me to go? My obligation is to my home, my Rubin. I can suffer, my pain was not his.
- Yakov Ronen: Mrs. Litvak, what won't let me leave?
- Mrs. Litvak: The Massik. He's playing with you, the way a cat plays with a mouse. It wants your pain, and it will make you see things, terrible things. Me, I am not enough for it, but your agony...
- Yakov Ronen: We're leaving, we have to go now. There is something very, very wrong here.
- Mrs. Litvak: If you run out, the Mazzik will make you crawl right back.
- Title Card: For thousands of years, religious Jews have practiced the ritual of 'The Vigil' - When a member of the community dies, the body is watched round-the-clock in shifts by a Shomer, or watchman, who recites the Psalms to comfort the deceased's soul and protect it from unseen evil. This watchman is typically a family member or friend, but there are paid Shomers... Hired to sit the Vigil when no one else can.