Disappearance (2002)

Disappearance is set in the Mojave desert as Jim (Harry Hamlin) & Patty Henley (Susan Dey) plus their two kids Katie (Basia A'Hern) & Matt (Jeremey Lelliott) along with Ethan (Jamie Croft) a friend of the family are travelling along, they stop at a roadside diner & ask about an old deserted mining town on the map called Weaver. No-one claims to have heard of it but it's definitely there & the family decide to take a detour in order to check it out & take some pictures. Once at the town they take some pictures & have a look around but when it comes time to leave their car won't start & they have to spend the night there. While looking around they find a camcorder videotape which they play only to discover footage of a scared woman saying all her friends have disappeared, the next morning & their car has disappeared as things take a very sinister turn. What is Weaver's secret? Will the Henley's ever leave there alive...Written, co-executive produced & directed by Walter Klenhard I have to say that Disappearance is one of the most frustrating films I have ever watched. For the first 85 minutes it was a pretty good mysterious mix of thriller & horror film but then we are treated to one of the single worst endings ever in motion picture history. The script suggest lots of different things but never elaborates or confirms & I was sitting there genuinely intrigued about what was going on, from the families car mysterious disappearing, the four recent graves, the thing in the abandoned mines, the supernatural sandstorm, the sudden & unexplained disappearance of Ethan & his just as unexplained reappearance, the Sheriff's sinister motives, the compass in the car going crazy, the crashed plane, the townspeople denying Weaver existed & the possible side effects of a neutron bomb being dropped near Weaver in the 40's but they are all tossed out of the window & for all we know could have been totally separate random events. Everything was coming along nicely & was set up for a big twist revelation but none was forthcoming & instead I was treated to the most ambiguous, strange, surreal & downright frustrating ending possible. If nothing else the ending contradicts much of what has gone before & leaves the viewer with more questions than answers. It's almost as if the makers had these great ideas but then didn't know what to do with them & just made the ending up on the spot. I just felt I put so much effort into watching the film which can be pretty slow at times without any sort of reward & in fact the ending felt more like a kick in the teeth or a good two finger salute!Director Klenhard does a reasonable job here, the old ghost town has a certain atmosphere & the large expansive desert locations give a good sense of isolation. It's well made but what were they thinking with that ending? Nothing fits, nothing makes sense & it's just a huge frustrating mess that after sitting through the thing for nearly an hour & a half leaves you confused & wanting to know more. Despite being a horror film there's no blood or gore although there are one or two creepy moments here & there. The film actually reminds of The Hills Have Eyes (2006) remake for large parts as that is what the film is set-up to be before a bizarre ending which does nothing to bring any closure to the film.Technically the film is good with high production values, good special effects, sets, locations & cinematography. Set in America but filmed in South Australia. The acting is fine from a decent cast.Disappearance is a really odd film, for a long time it shapes up to be a neat little horror mystery thriller but it never explains anything which happens & the truly surreal ending just throws up more questions than answers. I really can't see anyone making head nor tail of this, I really can't.

This is hands down the worst movie I can ever remember watching. Everything was unbelievably cliché and retarded. The acting was horrible too. The camera work wasn't bad but that still couldn't redeem it. The writer/director of this film must suffer from down's syndrome if he believed this movie would help his career. I want the hour and a half of my life back that I wasted watching this crap. I would rather watch a video of the grass growing than this. I cant believe IMDb is making me write 10 lines in order to post this but I feel that this movie is so bad that I must continue to warn others about it. The reason I came about this movie is that my girlfriend requested it from the local library thinking that it was the Kris Kristoferson movie which ended up being entitled "Disappearances". I don't know whose fault it was for this garbage ending up in my DVD player but I feel that someone owes me at least $20 for my time, pain and suffering. In conclusion, the director/writer of this movie better hope i ever recognize him on the street.

**SPOILERS** "Disappearance" is a movie with a beginning middle and absolutely no ending. Were, the audience and cast, are jerked around for almost the entire film and when it comes for what were expecting in a surprise ending or big payoff that would ties all the loose ends in the movie together we get a town full of Zombies instead. Theses Zombies act and seem as if they were lobotomized by either aliens from outer space or a super secret agency of the US Government. The persons in the town, as well as those who visited it, of Two Wells were made to forget everything what they saw and knew about this rinky dink of a desert ghost town called Weaver Nevada.Driving through the desert with his wife family and friend Jim Henely, Harry Hamlin, ends up taking a short cut that lands him & Co. in this out of the way ghost town called Weaver. It's not long that Jim realizes that he took a wrong turn with the town being deserted since 1948. It turned out that a neutron bomb was detonated outside of Weaver in September 1948 that wiped out the towns, or those who refused to leave, entire population. If a neutron bomb wasn't enough for the audience, as well as Jim Henley and family & friend, to ponder were also given clues by a local jailed alcoholic Lester, Roger Newcombe, that the legendary Area 51 as well as American Indian ghosts from the past have a hand in the crazy goings on in and around Weaver. During the Henley's stay at Weaver Jim's wife Patty, Susan Dey, ends up falling down a mine shaft and Matt's Henley's, Jeremy Lelliott, friend Eathen,Jamie Croft, ends up getting lost in the desert right under the nose of Jim Henley.These events, Patty's accident and Ethen's disappearance, in the end have nothing really to do with what's going on in the movie. They seem to have been put in to either confused the audience or pad the film to achieve for t an over 90 minutes running time. The movie's plot seems to be a cross between "The Hills have Eyes" and "Village of the Damned" with a lot of "Conspericey Theory" thrown in for good measure minus any kind of real or satisfying ending at all. We almost get a hint of what's really going on in both Weaver and it's neighboring town Two Wells when little Kate Henely, Basia A'Hern, spots at a local Two Well's hamburger stand this waitress that she recognized to have been killed, in a video tape that was found in Weaver, some time ago. It's only later that it's revealed that whoever that waitress was she as well as the entire town of Two Wells ended up there against their will but why they did it's never explained!The ending of the movie is a real mind-blower in that it purposely leaves it's audience up in the air to what was really going on. It gives you the impression that whatever was going on in the movie will keep happening as long a there's people traveling, like the bikers at the end of the film, through that God-forsaken town who will end up, unwillingly, becoming residents of Two Wells Nevada.

If you like movies about creepy towns, hotels, houses, states (ala the Eagles "Hotel California"), etc. that possess the people that are "just passing through," read almost any Stephen King novel instead. If you like the setting of "Disappearance" start by reading King's "Desperation" but also check out "The Shining", "Salem's Lot" and "Needful Things."The crow motif, the desert, the family driving in desperation to escape or avoid possession are tired. Why didn't they just make the film from the "Desperation" novel? Maybe they approached King and he nixed? Must be.Susan Dey and Harry Hamlin look happy to be reunited and they have both worn well over the years, but they're still TV and direct-to-DVD caliber actors.