Everybody in the world is minding their own beeswax, when suddenly the world is engulfed in darkness and most of the population is devoured by some sort of weird shadow entity. A very, very small group of survivors holes up in a bar and tries to plan a way to escape the city.
Over the past decade or so, Brad Anderson has established himself as a reliable director of quality horror movies and thrillers. Although Vanishing On 7th Street doesn't quite match his best movies (for my money, Session 9 and Transsiberian), it's a brisk, exciting post-apocalyptic thriller with a cool, novel villain.
Maybe a little too brisk. My only major complaint with the film is that at 90 minutes, it could stand to be a good 20 or 30 minutes longer. Post-apocalyptic movies tend to get a lot of their flavor from atmosphere and world-building, really fleshing out the details of the devastation in order to mine all the pathos. Vanishing On 7th Street is more breathless; the world ends in the blink of an eye and its a mad dash for the few survivors to try to stay in the light and not succumb to the darkness. Which, now that I think about it, is kind of a unique take on the genre, and it really emphasizes the fast and heartless nature of the threat. Still, I think a little more screen time showing us a little bit more of the world outside of the bar the heroes are hiding in would have helped sell the premise a little better. Maybe they didn't have the budget for it.
The cast is good (I've discovered that Hayden Christensen is a serviceable actor when he's not working for George Lucas), the screenplay is streamlined for maximum forward momentum, Anderson makes good use of light and shadow (he better, given this premise), but I'd say the real standout element is the villain. It's sort of a whispering, moving shadow with the impression of human figures (its victims, most likely) inside of it, and when it gets you, you vanish, gone in an instant, leaving behind only your clothes. This leads to some awesomely abrupt/shocking ends for some of the major characters, just the way I like it.
Grade: B
15 comments:
Noticed that you watched HAPPY ACCIDENTS recently. I Fucking ADORE that film. And it manages to win even with what has to be described as THE most generic, ugly box art the twisted minds of hell could possibly conceive.
I truly think Brad Anderson is about one classic film away from being remembered as one of the masterful directors of his generation. 7th STREET is a little stagey and tepid, but HAPPY ACCIDENTS, THE MACHINIST, SESSION 9 and TRANSIBERIAN are ALL classics of entirely different genres. Fuckin A right.
Bizarrely, I read this comment while we were in the middle of watching Session 9. Did not realize they were both products of the same dude. Or that he also did The Machinist, which is the only one you mentioned that I haven't seen, which I mostly want to see for the fascinating and bat-shit-crazy-seeming Christian Bale physical transformation for that role. But apparently it's a good movie too? Then that's two reasons.
Yeah. MACHINIST is a nicely moody little nightmare which is told from the perspective of a guy who hasn't slept in a year. Anderson brilliantly captures the weird distortions of mood and reality that exhaustion cause (although the ending might make you groan). Bale's physical transformation is so alarming that its all anyone seems to remember about the film, but its a great little mood piece all on its own (plus, Michael Ironside).
Yesssss, and it's on Netflix instant! That's definitely getting watched sometime soon.
I am now watching The Machinist. On like 2 hours of sleep. I find it really fitting.
Oh now I get why it's called The Machinist. He's a machinist.
It seems kind of like a protracted Twilight Zone episode. Which is cool. I think I'm live-commenting the movie now.
I love how Christian Bale is getting legitimately scared on the horror house ride.
Aww. Now that comment seems trivial because the kid had a seizure.
Oooh. I like the hangman thing. The kind of thing that makes connections between three probably unrelated, random things (the game of hangman with "MOTHER" in the trash, the mother's day card on the fridge, and the hanging man in the horror house) just like your mind would if you're paranoid and unraveling. A la A Beautiful Mind (and real life, I guess) when John Nash seeing codes and secret communications everywhere when he was going crazy.
Yeah. I think the takeaway from this movie is that I don't want to be a machinist.
Oh man. I thought we had it bad when a fuse blew and our fridge stopped running for a couple days before we figured it out. At least it didn't leak blood.
Wow. It takes some cahonies to make yourself get hit by a car for the sake of finding out someone's name and address.
Christian Bale is British?!?!?
Ahh. It all makes sense now. He really assumed "Miller" instead of "killer"? Really?
Well, and when I said it all makes sense now, I didn't mean the fact that CB is British. That's an impeccable accent. Much better than my British accent.
Post a Comment