Vanishing On 7th Street
released 2010
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“Vanishing On 7th Street” also known as “Vanishing” is an American, scifi, reality bending, horror, thriller film that could be characterized as post-apocalyptic. It was produced by Norton Herrick Peter D. Graves, Elayne Herrick, Michael Herrick, Pamela Hirsch. Ken Hirsch, Lawrence Mattis, Kelly McCormick, Nick Quested and Celine Rattray and directed by Brad Anderson. It was written by Anthony Jaswinski and stars Hayden Christensen, John Leguizamo, Thandiwe Newton, Jacob Latimer, Taylor Goothuis, Jordan Trovillion, Arthur Cartwright, Neal Huff, Hush Maguire, Erin Nicole, Stephen Clark, Carolyn Clifford-Taylor, Larry Fessenden, NIcholas Yu and many more.

Vanishing On 7th Street IMDb webpage

“Vanishing On 7th Street” takes place in an empty Detroit that has suddenly gone silent. The protagonist Luke, played by Hayden Christensen, wakes up to find that not a soul is around in his city. He goes to work and finds nobody there. He walks the streets and finds them empty of people with only their clothes left where they once stood. In another part of the city a head light wearing character named Paul, played by John Leguizamo, works in a theater when suddenly the lights go out in the theater. When the lights come back on everybody is gone. Everyone has disappeared leaving only their clothes behind. A similar event happens to Rosemary, played by Thandiwe Newton, in a hospital and all other surviving characters. It seems that when the lights go out, in the presence of darkness people disappear, or more precisely taken by some shadow creatures. As the sun sets, even though it is still morning, Luke finds a bar named Sonny´s Bar with its neon lights still working so he goes in for safety. The bar is deserted but for the bar owner´s son James, played by Jacob Latimore. Rosemary, Paul, Luke and James find themselves in the bar that is now running o generators. Lights flicker as the group must decide what to do and how to find more light.

“Vanishing On 7th Street” is a different kind of post-apocalyptic film because it melds the supernatural into the tale. I often found myself wondering if the main character(s) where not in some kind of nightmare or coma. The annihilative force was so thorough, swift, mysterious and complete we were left wondering exactly what force the characters were dealing with. The enemy was not crazed zombies or pillaging motorcycle gangs or even space aliens, as we´re used to seeing them in films. They were some kind of shadow beings or ghosts of some kind that seemed to only want to take everybody. But, why?

Another question we have to wonder about is what could the characters have done to stay away from the shadows? Well, it was early morning and the sun had set, presumably never to raise again. It might be safe to assume that they would never see daylight again so their survival would contingent on them finding a light source that would not die out. The light from generators, candles, flashlights and neon lights are all just temporary. But one interesting element is the way the little girl managed to survive better than anyone else. In many survivalist stories you find the one character, or colony of people, that have managed to survive the impossible situation. They are usually great observers, they´re hunkered down somewhere and they know more about what´s going on then other people. I think that that little girl is such a character. So, if there is any hope of survival it rests with her and what she knows.

Another element of this story is that it might just be the end of the human race. It´s not an ending predicted by scholars or the media but it is still a plausible explanation. This is not the story of asteroids colliding with the Earth, invincible plagues, alien invasions, doomsday weapons unleashed. This is the end of humanity with a supernatural twist. A terrifying mystery that will never show its face or give any reason for what they do. That is a terrifying foe indeed.

So, if there were to be a sequel, probably a short one, what would it be like? Would we get any further explanations like maybe some evil practitioner of evil occult magic opened a doorway to another world of horrifying creatures with sinister intentions and soul eating apetites. Or maybe nuclear tests opened those doorways or another misuse of our technologies. The sky is the limit as far as explanations go but you do have to strive for story originality and avoid all those already told story lines.

Although this is a good watch I only wished the story had more direction, not necessarily answers but direction. Maybe introduce character arcs a little more and unusual coincedences. So many post-apocalyptic stories or stories where characters are stuck in a bad place rely on those characters feuding and the problem with that is that those stories often do not advance much and they don´t hold our interest. They are stagnant.

Otherwise, check out “Vanishing On 7th Street” because it is a fun watch and it´s strange too.

John Ink2Quill

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