A sort of variation on The Mist, Brad Anderson's Vanishing on 7th Street draws its inspiration from the 1590 Roanoke Island mystery, where where an entire colony of English settlers seemingly disappeared without a trace. Anderson suggests they didn't hike it to Croatoan Island (as the word 'CROATOAN' was carved into a tree near the settlement) but were snatched up and taken into some sort of parallel universe by shadowy creatures -- an incident that's now re-occurring in modern-day Detroit. Hayden Christensen, John Leguizamo, Thandie Newton and newcomer Jacob Latimore comprise a group of survivors hiding out in a bar, trying desperately to stay in the light (these creatures of darkness don't like the light, you see) and wondering why they were "chosen" to be seemingly the last living people on Earth. Unfortunately, this A-level premise is undone by a C-level script, though there are some good scares (and one really good one early on in a shopping mall) as well as some impressive low-budget FX trickery on display. A not-bad offering from Anderson, but somewhat even more diminished by the fact that we know he can do a lot better (Session 9, The Machinist, Transsiberean).
New On Netflix: Vanishing on 7th Street
