Me And My Shadows

Brad Anderson, the helmer behind The Mechanic and frequent Fringe collaborator, jumps back to big screen directing duties with Vanishing On 7th Street. It's a creepy Twilight Zone-style apocalyptic drama set in a world where the vast majority of people have simply vanished without a trace. The few survivors that remain are gradually picked of by the darkness and shadows that once enveloping their prey, cause them to vanish too.

The first third is atmospheric and unnerving, with Anderson keeping the dialogue to a minimum. The second act focuses more on character, as the survivors (Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, John Leguizamo and newcomer Jacob Latimore, gather in a bar where they remain, under siege, until the climax, where things go to hell. The situation is an opportunity to explore different people beliefs with some thinking the events are 'random' while others argue it's the work of 'God'. Indeed, there seems to be an interesting religious subtext going on with all the characters having biblical names, and the disappearance of everybody might be something akin to The Rapture or, more likely, a Noah's Ark cleansing of the earth. The religious argument is strengthened even further with the film ending in a church with the last survivors being two children; perhaps the pure and innocent neo-Adam and Eve that are to provide a new beginning?

Whatever the hell it's about, Vanishing is a eerie little suspense movie that plays like a zombie siege movie (without the zombies) or a version of The Happening if done properly. Cool.