Brainsbell
The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
Matho
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Scarlet
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Wizard-8
A movie like "Disappearance" is in some aspects a real disappointment, but not because it is a really bad movie. There are a lot of good things to be found here; in fact, the movie manages to be good right up to near the very end. The cast give professional performances and make their characters' words and action convincing. It is very well directed by writer/director Walter Klenhard, from the elaborate camera movements to having an atmosphere with real bite; you can feel the isolation, heat, and dust in the air. The production values are really good for what had to have been a limited budget. And the movie, while not scary for people like me who are veteran horror viewers, does manage to be eerie almost in every scene. Unfortunately, all this good stuff doesn't really make up for an ending that is really frustrating. The movie seems to be building to reveal SOME kind of revelation as to what is happening and why it is happening. But despite a number of possible clues presented, no definite explanation is given. Then the movie has the gall to end things on a note that will be very familiar to veteran horror viewers instead of something more original. It's like getting a very fancily wrapped present, but once you remove the gorgeous packaging you find nothing inside. This movie could have been a sleeper of a horror movie had it ended in a better way, but as it is, it's an interesting failure.
media-138
Sadly, I have to give this movie a THUMBS DOWN. I don't recommend you watch it.This movie has many good aspects. There are noteworthy things in the writing, acting, and directing. It is surprisingly good for a TV movie. (I saw it on the Lifetime Network in Nov-2008.) Some of the comments on IMDb accuse the movie of being cliché. I don't think that's fair. It certainly echoes and builds upon other horror movies. I thought it had a great deal in common with The Hills Have Eyes. There is an Invasion of the Body Snatchers aspect, and maybe a slight Poltergeist aspect. But it wasn't cliché.Actually, I think this movie is superior to The Hills Have Eyes. It manages to build a greater level of suspense, and it does so with virtually zero gore. That is a notable achievement. You can let older children watch this movie without worrying about scarring them psychologically, but mature fans of horror will still be on the edge of their seats the whole time.Another great thing about this movie is that, whereas in most horror movies the characters always make the WRONG choices (which is frustrating to the audience), in this movie the characters contemplate the wrong choices but then end up making the RIGHT choices. This adds to the suspense, and makes it all the more surprising when those choices go wrong. I found that refreshing. (An example: neat the end of the movie, the father decides to drive to a neighboring town instead of staying in the possessed town. From the audience's point of view, the father makes the right choice, but then everything goes wrong anyways.)HOWEVER... although there are good things in this movie, the ending sucks. It sucks just as badly as all the comments on IMDb say it does.The ending sucks because a) there are too many unanswered questions, and b) there is not a sufficient explanation for who the villain was, and what the actual fate of the family was.As for the unanswered questions... we never knew how the boy disappeared in the desert, or what happened to him while he was gone. We never found out who was stealing belongings and sorting them into piles in the mine shaft, or why. We never found out if there was a supernatural aspect to the sand storms. We never found out exactly what happened in the ghost town. We never found out how the father walked in a straight line but still ended up back at the ghost town.The movie suggests three possible explanations for the mysterious antagonist:1- Descendants of neutron bomb victims who refused to evacuate.2- Angry Native American spirits -- the ghost town having been built on a grave.3- Aliens.These are the three theories that the guy in the jail cell tells the father.But the movie gives clues that are at odds with each other.=> The glass bomb site and the snorting creature in the mine shaft suggest MUTANTS.=> The symbolic layout of the abandoned cars and the raven suggest Indian SPIRITS.=> The Stepford town, the woman from the video working at the fast food place, and the ultimate possession of the family suggest ALIENS.This is confusing and frustrating for the audience.The movie is good enough that it makes you really want a resolution. But the answers cannot be found within the movie itself, nor can you extrapolate the answers from the given clues. Therefore, despite the good aspects of the script, the direction, and the acting, the experience of watching this movie is ultimately highly dissatisfying.
digital_dogcow
I caught this film today on a slow Sunday before Bank Holiday and was pleasantly surprised. For the bulk of this film you go along expecting run of the mill Stephen King-eseque 'clone' fare, then Disappearance suddenly hits you with a curve ball ending that is very enigmatic and gives you absolutely no answers. (never-mind answers on a plate). In an age where identi-kit movies trundle off the Hollywood assembly line, thats a brave step for any film, for a made-for-TV effort its positively audacious.**MIld Spoiler Alert**Having perused the comments already made here, the almost brutal way the writers curtailed this movie seems to generate considerable ire and indignation in some viewers, resulting in, IMO, harsh scores. At the end of this film the family are caught in the middle of an on-going mystery and atypically the viewer is caught there with them. More so, the intentionally vague final scene when the daughter feeds the crow, leaves you feeling you now know even less than they do. You almost expect the continuity voice-over to announce part II next week. It's unsatisfying and vaguely irritating and in an almost perverse way, I kind of like it all the more, for it. It lifts the movie from the hum-drum and fits very well with the understated unease that pervades the film throughout.If you're the kind of person who hated the 60's TV series 'The Prisoner' for failing to conclude with pat-answers then you're going to abhor this film for the same reason. If you're the kind of person who enjoys the prospect of having their imagination stimulated by a made-for-TV movie you fully expected was going to be the usual 2nd rate pap, then you're going to enjoy this film. A far from perfect movie, but one deserving of more credit than it garners on these pages.
ops_kt
Normally, I have no problem with a movie or story with an ending that leaves you wondering to puzzle out what really happened, when it's done on purpose...But this movie really feels like they got all but the last 15 minutes done, then realized they had $5 left to finish on...I saw it on TBS... I recommend you not spend money on it either. If you catch it on TV, watch all but the last 15 minutes, then walk away and make your own ending in your mind.Really, the movie would have been better if they had simply got away, and come back with the State Poice of Feds only to find that the town and the car graveyard was gone, and by all appearances had never been there..."Wish I had more thumbs, so I could give that movie 4 thumbs down!"
