Director: Brad Anderson
Writer: Anthony Jaswinski (Screenplay)
Starring: Hayden Christensen, John Leguizamo, Thandie Newton, Jacob Latimore, Taylor Groothuis, Jordan Trovillion
Plot: The population of Detroit has almost completely disappeared, but a few remain. As daylight disappears they realize that the Dark is coming for them.
Tagline – Stay in the light
Runtime: 1 Hour 32 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Nice Little Horror Mystery
Story: Vanishing on 7th Street starts on a normal day in Detroit, when a sudden power outage sees Paul (Leguizamo), Luke (Christensen), Rosemary (Newton) and James (Latimore) find themselves alone, using what little light they can find, while the rest of the city seems to have vanished within an instant in the darkness.
The four find themselves meeting in a bar running on a generator which sees them try to figure out what is happening and why they haven’t been taken by the darkness.
Thoughts on Vanishing on 7th Street
Characters – Luke is a reporter that moved to the city to start his own career, his partner is a weather girl, he wakes up and goes out in the day seeing everybody gone, he does seem to be one of the only ones that has been thinking of a plan, thought it does make him very blunt with his responses to anything the others think. Paul is working in a cinema when the incident happens, his headlight is the only thing that keeps him safe from the danger he could face. He is injured by the time the group gets together, where he offers an idea to what is happening. Rosemary is a mother that has lost her baby in the incident, she wants not more than to find him even if she does know the horrible truth. James is the youngest member of the survivors, he is waiting for his mom to return before deciding whether he wants safety or not.
Performances – Hayden Christensen continued to try and rebuild his career with this leading role performance, where he does everything with ease, without feeling like a true lead in the film, John Leguizamo and Thandie Newton does their roles well enough, while young Jacob Latimore is the highlight of the four stars.
Story – The story here follows four strangers that find themselves as the only people alive after an unexplained sudden darkness which has made everybody vanish instantly. This does create an interesting world where darkness is pure evil and light will always become harder to hold onto to try and survive, it does play into a story of a boat which appeared after crossing the ocean with a message and nobody on board, which would and is something that could be studied and guess about too. The way the story unfolds is rather generic in how it all flows, with the people needing to do certain tasks which become more dangerous and let the darkness get closer.
Horror/Mystery – The horror comes from the darkness, which does show how it is slowly moving towards people who are losing the lights in the world, with everything looking like a figure approaching, while the mystery is more about why this is happening, though it never seems to lead to a true answer.
Settings – The film is set in Detroit which sees most of the time being set in the bar trying to figure out what is happening, before we get the we get the haunting scenes of empty streets or stores.
Special Effects – The film uses the effects well, to make the darkness feel like figures waiting for the light to go.
Scene of the Movie – Car light save.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – That plane moment.
Final Thoughts – This is an interesting horror that brings a fresh sudden scare to it, with the darkness being waiting for a chance to finish taking the population.
Overall: Darkness Simmers
