THE VANISHING ON 7TH STREET review

Last night’s Halloween flick was a bit of a disappointment. THE VANISHING ON 7TH STREET had a lot going for it: I like Hayden Christensen and John Leguizamo just fine and am a big, big fan of Brad Anderson (SESSION 9 remains one of my favorite horror films of all time; I saw it five times in the theater alone). And it sure as hell wasn’t the premise, which is undeniably chilling. It was the execution that bothered me.

In my humble opinion, survival horror must always stand up against Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD: it has to say something meaningful about our nature or our civilization; outwitting and dodging the threat just isn’t enough. In the end, I didn’t really find the threat (as original as it was) or the characters say anything substantial about us, and that’s a shame.