Vanishing on 7th Street (Review)

This darkness isn’t scary…

One day the sun goes down, there is a power blackout and everyone in the area vanishes.

As in gone.

Leaving only non-human things that were once attached or wrapped around their person; watches, phones, clothes and so forth (strangely enough not shoes!).

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

…THIS Darkness is scary.

Allow me to digress: if you made it this far you are probably a Brad Anderson fan due to either the masterful Session 9, the excellent The Machinist or the above average Transsiberian. And I am not here to argue against any of those films. By let me say I will be caning this film shortly: that doesn’t mean I am having a go at the director or his previous films.

But Vanishing on 7th Street pretty much sucks.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Back into the film: The precious few survivors are alive because they were fortunate enough to be toting personal light sources at the time. They include Paul (John Leguizamo), Luke (Hayden Christiansen), a reporter, James, a young kid who was in a bar kept alight by a back-up generator and Rosemary (Thandie Newton).

Their sources of light aren’t important – Paul was a projectionist who had a hat with one of those mining light thingos – the important thing is why they ended up in the predicament and how to extract themselves from it.

And this is where Vanishing on 7th Street stumbles aimlessly in the dark. ‘You’ve heard of the kid’s game ‘the floor is lava’ where they navigate recklessly about the house on furniture without touching carpet or tiles for fear that they will burn.

Well this is ‘the darkness is non-existence’. If any character strays from a light source even momentarily we are lead to believe that they cease to exist for some reason. This leads to an hour of encroaching darkness with accompanying whispers and anguished cries, and various things running out of power or flickering threateningly while the characters desperately try to move to the light or ignite/turn on something else.

I know many people are afraid of the dark for various reasons, but I fail to see just how scary this all supposed to be. Half way through I realised that nothing was jumping out from the shadows and that we were expected to be scared simply because the music told us so (with increasing volume as things progressed).

Now putting ominous music behind a static shot of a dripping tap might make it seem menacing for a while, but after the event when nothing develops you realised you spent an hour watching a leaky tap. That’s Vanishing on 7th Street, 90 minutes of watching people who are literally afraid of their own shadow, only with an ending that wants us to think that it was so much more.

Final Rating – 5 / 10. Brad Anderson’s previous filmography demands that I continue giving his films a chance (and I will continue to do so). Let me suggest that there is no need for you to subject yourself to Vanishing on 7th Street, the film that proves you don’t need complete darkness to get some sleep.

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
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