Vanishing on 7th Street is a post-apocalyptic thriller film directed by Brad Anderson. The plot revolves around a world were the darkness is closing in all around us, each day there is less and less sunlight to a point where we are basically living in darkness. To make matters worse when a person is trapped in the darkness, they become consumed and disappear from existence. This has been going on for an undetermined about of time and most of humanity is gone.
The premise for this film is terrifying and it stayed with me long after I saw it. Every day we spend a large amount of our time in the dark and if that became fatal the fallout would be unimaginable. I think for the most part this scary premise was lived up to, my one complaint would be I never understood the powers of the darkness. The darkness seems to be able to turn off lights and drain electrical devices of their power, but other times they can’t. Sometimes the shadow people seem to be threatening monsters who want nothing more than to lure people out into the darkness to kill them, other times it is loved ones watching over the characters. The differences between the two types of shadow people is never explained.
I am sure these figures are left deliberately ambiguous, which works to an extent, but I would like to have them explained a little bit more.
The cast for the most part to a good job, Hayden Christensen is a strong leading man; he really gets an unfairly bad reputation from Star Wars. The rest of the cast are serviceable, they do a good job conveying emotion, but they aren’t on the same level as Christensen.
The worst thing about this film is the blatant product placement. I have seen many films with product placement, but this one is especially blatant. I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole film was an advert for AMC Cinemas, as they are constantly featured, so much so that it takes you out of the overall experience.
I think overall this is an intriguing thriller, the premise is scary and the execution is strong as well, Christensen proves that he is a great leading man, if the product placement was less egregious and the shadow people were more clearly defined this could have been a very good film, but still as is it is on the better side of average.
Pros.
Christensen is great.
The premise is strong.
It is scary and says with you.
Cons.
The product placement.
The shadow people are scary but aren’t clearly defined and as such are confusing.
3.5/5
Another Millennial Reviewer 