Vanishing on 7th Street

While parts of the movie peaked my interest, overall, it was very disappointing. A vague plot, poor script, weak effects and actors trying their best to make it work. Too bad they failed. A movie with this premise has great potential, it can lead the viewer down a path and let the audience intellectually fill in the blanks. In order for that to occur, the movie itself must provide the plot points, the material that that allows, and draws the viewer to want to connect the dots and create, so to speak, their own movie within a movie. I just gave up, and so, apparently, did the filmmakers. I won't gave away anything, because there really isn't anything to tell.

Why nut burn stuff for light. They had a entire city full of wooden objects to burn for light. Even if this was set in a rural area, they could've collected wood to burn at night.

'VANISHING ON 7TH STREET': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Brad Anderson directs this apocalyptic horror film about an unknown darkness falling on mankind and devouring everything in it's path. Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, John Lequizamo and newcomer Jacob Latimore star as a small group of survivors who band together. The film was written by Anthony Jaswinski (who's written a few other low rent horror films no one's heard of, mainly of the made for TV variety). Anderson has shown some skill in past projects (he directed the impressive 2004 thriller 'THE MACHINIST', featuring a 110 pound Christian Bale) but here he sinks to pure mediocrity directing a pretty forgettable routine thriller.

One random day there's a severe power outage and most of the world's population vanishes into thin air, leaving nothing behind but their clothes. The remaining survivors are quickly gobbled up by the ever growing darkness as well and the only way to escape it is to stay in the light, which becomes more and more scarce as electricity continues to fail and the days grow shorter and shorter. The film focuses on four surviving strangers who find each other in a bar on 7th Street in Detroit Michigan. Christensen stars as a TV anchorman named Luke, Leguizamo co-stars as a movie theater projectionist named Paul, Newton also co-stars as a mother desperately looking for her lost child and Latimore plays a young boy first camped out in the bar hopelessly waiting for his mom to return.

The film is interesting at first but none of it's puzzling questions are really answered. It's suspenseful and effectively eerie at times but nothing builds to a very satisfying conclusion. The point of the movie is never clearly known. Some will enjoy it's open-endedness but others will be frustrated by what some will call it's creative laziness. The performances are all adequate at best, the screenplay somewhat boring and the directing ho-hum. Not a complete waste of time for horror and suspense thriller fans but ultimately forgettable.

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The movie is creepy and dark and functions well without shock moments and the spilling of blood. There is some solid acting and the characters are not totally unbelievable, though they appear a little like the usual all-American suspects. I definitely don't agree with the frequent criticism that the movie lacks an explanation. The lack of an explanation is the actual concept of the movie. If the movie provided one, it would be as much fun as looking at a filled-in sudoku. The viewer is given food for thought by the different explanatory approaches done by the movie characters. I liked the reference to the "lost colony"-case, a historical oddity concerning the unresolved vanishing of a group of early settlers in America. I agree that the ending can be understood in a way that makes it seem cheesy - I interpreted it differently and so for me it was satisfying. I don't want to give anything away so let me just say as much: In my opinion no one survives at the end, but that certainly is disputable. My rating is a solid 6, although I was tempted to give more just to lift the overall rating since imo it is undeserved.

How can you run from the dark? After waking up to an empty city Luke (Christensen) and a small group of survivors try to find a way to escape. When they realize the darkness is what is causing the vanishings can they find enough light to survive? Based on the previews I had pretty high expectations for this movie, it was very slow moving. The idea was pretty creepy, and it is tons better then "The Happening", although the story line was pretty similar. This movie seems like a really good "Twilight Zone" episode, but it doesn't really work as a full length movie. It gets repetitive pretty quick. It begins as a pretty scary movie, but runs out of steam quick and begins to drag. This is not a bad movie at all, but after the "last man on earth" type movies like "I Am Legend" this one doesn't really compare. Much, much better then "The Happening", but not one to rush out and see. I give it a C.

Would I watch again? - Probably not.

*Also try - Skyline & The Happening