Movie Review - Vanishing on 7th Street

Vanishing on 7th Street (2011)

Starring Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, Jacob Latimore, and John Leguizamo

Directed by Brad Anderson

***An early review -- This film will be released in local theaters on February 25***

One evening during a quick electrical power outage, nearly everyone in Detroit vanishes into thin air, leaving their piles of clothing strewn about the city.  Four people have seemingly survived the mass disappearance and they soon realize it's because they were around a non-electical light source at the time -- a candle, flashlight, etc.  Can this quartet survive the ghostly shadows that appear all across the city or will their metaphorical light be snuffed out?

The whole premise of Vanishing on 7th Street sounds silly, I realize, but I've got to say that the story was moderately entertaining.  There is an eerie quality present that derives its spookiness from sheer simplicity.  It's obvious that the budget on this flick wasn't large, but director Brad Anderson makes the most of things, creating a tense atmosphere with very little with which to work.  Anderson keeps the film moving at a brisk pace and the under-90 minute running time was a welcome surprise.

However, the film falters a bit when it comes to surviving quartet of characters themselves.  Everything that we learn about the group seems completely irrelevant.  Hayden Christensen's young news reporter was cheating on his wife with a married woman and Thandie Newton (who overacts out the wazoo at the beginning of this flick) is a new mother who recently separated from her baby's daddy.  I guess these plot revelations were supposed to make me "feel" for these characters or, at the very least, make them seem more relatable to me...needless to say, that didn't happen.  John Leguizamo's character doesn't have any secrets revealed, but he plays a film projectionist and we all know what secrets those recluses hold.  The fourth character is a kid because every movie like this has to have a kid in it because apparently kids in peril make audiences nervous or something.  Unfortunately, the film really fails these four actors by not developing their characters in the slightest.  I didn't give a damn about any one of these people and couldn't care less if they were taken by the shadows.

Despite my dislike for the character development, it wouldn't have been enough for me to disregard the flick.  However, it's also a shame that the film ends on a disappointing note.  The ending is slightly cop-outtish and I wish the movie would've had the nerve to conclude on a slightly different note.  Still, despite the qualms (and the not-so-great rating below), I didn't despise the movie.  Not that I ever need to watch it again, but you can certainly fare worse when it comes to eerie ghost movies.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-