The Vanishing – Vanishing on 7th Street (2010)

Directed by: Brad Anderson | 92 minutes | horror, thriller | Actors: Hayden Christensen, John Leguizamo, Thandie Newton, Jacob Latimore, Taylor Groothuis, Jordan Trovillion, Arthur Cartwright, Neal Huff, Hugh Maguire, Erin Nicole, Stephen Clark, Carolyn Taylor, Larry Fessenden, Nicholas Yu

Brad Anderson seems to specialize in creating a creepy, subcutaneous sense of unease. He did this in ‘Session 9’, in the eerie, Hitchockian ‘The Machinist’, and now he’s doing it again in ‘The Vanishing’, a post-apocalyptic thriller starring Hayden – Anakin Skywalker – Christensen. It’s a film with a tantalizing concept – the darkness as an active and all-powerful enemy – and Anderson skillfully manages to draw the viewer’s attention through well-dosed panic or threatening moments and preserving the mystery behind the murderous darkness. entire duration of the movie. This certainly does not mean that ‘The Vanishing’ is without flaws. For example, it is regrettable that really only questions are asked and nothing is clarified – about the purpose and operation of the Darkness, for example – and that the investment the viewer makes in the story is not rewarded because of the bad ending and sketchy characters. But the fascination with this mysterious darkness and the desire that the characters – especially young James – will make it through, dominates, which keeps the film captivated until the very end.

The film begins about as mysteriously as it ends. Paul (John Leguizamo), a projectionist in the cinema of a large shopping center, gets the shock of his life when the lights go out and there is no one in sight when the emergency lights come on. This devastating darkness has set in not only in the cinema, but in the entire shopping center. Only the clothes that the visitors were wearing are left behind, like pitiful heaps when they were suddenly taken or disappeared. A little later we meet Rosemary, a physiotherapist who has to deal with a similar situation in a hospital. One moment there is another patient on the operating table, and after a brief moment of darkness, only the operating shirt is left. Luke (Hayden), next, is another character to be followed closely. He is a TV journalist who also from one day to the next turns out to be the only survivor in his personal environment. Dazed, he walks out at dawn (or is it dusk?) and while he is taking it all in, the viewer sees a plane coming down vertically and at a fast speed and drilling into the tarmac behind him. Fiercely.

These characters soon learn that they must stay out of the ever-increasing and creeping darkness if they are to survive and use every possible light source to keep themselves alive. They eventually find each other in the (presumably) only lit bar, powered by a generator kept running by a waitress’s armed son. Only by working together and coming up with creative solutions can they stand a chance of coming out alive. But the hope for this is not great from the start. It is actually clear to everyone that everyone will lose out when the generator fails. And that will happen in the long run. It is a pity that hopeful storylines are created that bleed to death because they are not followed up and thus saddle the viewer with false hope. For example, Luke believes that there may be survivors in Detroit, where his wife is, and that they can come up with a solution there. But this is just speculation and the movie doesn’t even come close to Detroit.

It is also a pity that the identity or cause of the suffocating darkness is not explored in depth enough. Of course someone comes up with the theory – just like in ‘The Mist’ – that humanity is punished by God and everything has a religious background. But it doesn’t get much further than that. There are, however, hints of interesting interpretations present. For example, one character suggests that perhaps the darkness lures people in with the light sources it leaves behind, thus creating a trap. Also, during an episode where Luke and Rosemary go outside together, it seems that the darkness creates images in the minds of the characters. That she uses their fears and desires to lure them to a (literally) dark place. For example, Rosemary really wants to find her son and at a certain point she also thinks that she sees him, as if in a vision, in the middle of the street, lit by a lamppost. But is it him? Unfortunately, they are only fragments and it is never clear what the origin or purpose of the darkness is.

Although the characters are barely explored, the acting is decent, apart from some overacting from Newton here and there. Hayden Christensen doesn’t do badly in the actual lead role, but he doesn’t manage to really bring his stiff, somewhat unsympathetic character to life. Then his portrayal in ‘Shattered Glass’ was more interesting. But it’s nice that his performance here isn’t as wooden as in the ‘Star Wars’ prequels. It is especially little Jacob Latimore who impresses as James. He is the heart of the film and knows how to take the viewer along in this perilous adventure. His fear and will to live are tangible and that is important in a literally and figuratively dark and dejected film like this one. Combined with the oppressive atmosphere that Anderson still manages to create quite often, this makes ‘The Vanishing’ a decent, if somewhat disappointing, mystery thriller.