Disappearance (2002)

Great suspense!

I had never seen this movie all the way through. I would catch snippets here and there on TV, but always the in the middle. I finally bought it on Amazon and watched it. I loved it! The script didn't waste a lot of time with background info on the characters. With a short intro, it went right into the scary stuff. It's implied that something evil is in the abandoned town. And it can be whatever you want it to be. Nothing is the way it should be in this place. But that's what makes this movie great! It doesn't need a lot of slash and gore to hit home. Anyone out there afraid to get lost in the desert? August 24, 2008

Creepy and suspenseful

Good production values on this suspenseful telefilm done for the TBS network. Writer/director Walter Klenhard is also responsible for the 1994 telefilm "The Haunting of Seacliff Inn". In "Disappearance" a family driving west in their SUV make a fateful decision to visit the "ghost town" of Weaver -- a town 23 miles off the main highway that is shown on maps from 40 years ago but not on current ones.

What goes on in that town is never fully explained. A number of possibilities are suggested but in the end the explanation is left to the imagination of the viewer. This works fine for me though it seems to have annoyed some other reviewers. At least it avoids any letdown from showing cliched mutants or aliens or Indian ghosts.

The fun part of this movie is in seeing the decisions the family makes, and the scenes and ideas along the way that suggest (never definitively) what might be behind it all. From the very first there's an atmosphere of quiet paranoia. Will they make it to the next stop or run out of gas in the desert? What's with the creepy little gas station and diner where everyone keeps to themselves and the hamburgers look like burnt hockey pucks? Why does no one admit to knowing about the ghost town of Weaver, even though one man advises the family to "stay on the highway"?

When the family does decide to leave the highway, and actually finds the old ghost town, this feeling of paranoia gets stronger, and weird things start to happen. These weird events and the suspense over whether the family will escape is what makes the movie so enjoyable. Don't expect a full explanation or a happy ending. Just use your imagination and enjoy the ride!

"Disappearance" was filmed in Australia, standing in for the New Mexico desert. November 18, 2007

Did I fall asleep and miss something here?

The acting was good. The writing started out being good, but then... Hu?

I don't seem to recall going out for a beer during the last ten minutes or so. Disappearance has a wonderful build-up, but ultimately went nowhere.

What a shame, I really wanted to like it, but it all fell flat. September 22, 2007

Disappearance is annoying

Although there were some incongruities in the movie, it could have been a good one - the suspense was there and I watched it with interest but you kind of want to know the explanation at the end of the movie and it wasn't even something one could figure out. Two possible explanations were given:
1. the ghost town was built on Indian burial grounds and those responsible for the problems encountered there were spirits
2. they detonated a neutron bomb there in 1948 - the people got away and hid and their kids were mutants.
But neither of these work for the end of the movie where the protagonists were apparently unharmed but we are not sure what is going on with them - maybe made into stepford people but very uncertain. They are now living in the neighboring town (the one they first stopped at before they went to the ghost town). No hint at what happened except a vague mention of aliens. It's just like recording a movie and having it cut off just before the ending only you see the ending in "Disappearance" but it's a non ending with not so much as a hint about what is going on. Too bad, it could have been a good movie - it definitely had its moments. However, in my opinion, writing a good ending is an important part of the film and a film like Disappearance which gets sloppy with the ending is not worth watching. September 5, 2007

If you don't "get" the ending, try watching a horror flick from before 2000.

Nearly every bad review I've ever seen of this movie has one thing in common: a bunch of people who apparently have never seen a horror movie prior to the turn of the century start whining about the "bad" ending and how you "never see the monsters." Let me put it simply: ever heard the phrase "the thing we fear the most is the unknown"? It isn't a flaw in the movie that you never see the monster. It is a psychological aspect designed to make you think. Classic horror movies used to have actual suspense in them. Audiences nowadays have become so used to silly template horror flicks that spoon-feed them every piece of information that when one finally comes along that is brave enough to go back to the older - and better - Hitchcockian style of horror/thriller, the audience can't grasp the subtleties. It's a shame, really, because the movie is a remarkable piece of cinematic work. April 10, 2007

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