The Disappeared
The Disappeared
| 25 August 2008 (USA)
The Disappeared Trailers

Following the disappearance of his younger brother Tom, Matthew Ryan tries to put his life and sanity back together. However the past keeps coming back to haunt him.

Reviews
PlatinumRead Just so...so bad
Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
Catharina_Sweden I did not have much expectations about this movie, because my experience is that ghost stories set in modern urban settings, very seldom meet up to the standards of classic ghost stories set in old castles or manors and the like. But it turned out to be surprisingly good, if one takes it for what it is.The photo was bleak and the environments were depressing, but this was of course part of the story. You can also see it as a statement of the awful conditions many poor kids grow up in - even in our rich, civilized western countries. It was a little difficult to follow the plot, as one often did not know what was real, what was supernatural events (ghosts, premonitions, telepathy etc.), what was dreams or hallucinations etc.. But of course - that was also part of the story.The mystery in itself is engaging and exciting, and the solution to it is quite unexpected but still not contrived. Well worth watching!
Spikeopath The Disappeared is directed by Johnny Kevorkian who also co-writes the screenplay with Neil Murphy. It stars Harry Treadaway, Greg Wise, Alex Jennings, Tom Felton, Finlay Robertson, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Ros Leeming. Music is by Ilan Eshkeri and cinematography by Diego Rodriguez. After suffering a mental breakdown following the disappearance of his younger brother whilst in his care, Matthew Ryan (Treadaway) is released from the hospital but finds he is haunted by visions and voices of his missing brother. Mental problem or something supernatural.Johnny Kevorkian's debut full length feature is a potent piece of British psychological horror. Undeniably on the surface the plot contains familiar horror tropes seen in big budgeted movies of the past, but Kevorkian and his cast strip the gloss away to reveal a disturbingly raw exposé of grief and mental trauma.The back drop is a dank and oppressive housing estate near the docklands, the colours washed out, the imagery and shadowy photography producing a creepy atmosphere befitting the thematics rumbling away in the story. The sound mix is brilliantly jarring, everything is well constructed to land us viewers firmly into the whirlwind of psychological discord that pervades the picture.The narrative isn't solely intent on solving the mystery of a missing child, itself a desperately sad and horrific centre point of the story, there's carefully inserted devices involving parental abuse, alcoholism, bullying, mental health care and suicide. It's undoubtedly miserable, but life so often is for many, and Kevorkian slow burns his story for maximum impact.The cast are led superbly by young Treadaway, appropriately looking like a young Ian Curtis, he hits all the right emotional beats without histrionics. It is a character that so easily could have been over played, making a mockery of the mental health issue, but Treadaway nails it. He's backed by an anguished turn from Wise as his father, while Felton, Leeming and Jennings skilfully act within the tonal requirements.I can't say the finale is a complete success, where the revelation stretches out too far into the supernatural. It would have been far better to keep it humanistic, since everything prior operated on those terms, but it doesn't kill the film. This remains a criminally under valued and under seen gem of low budget British horror. Derivative be damned, this has far more going for it to be tagged as that. 9/10
jenn386 Though this movie was long, it was not uneventful. Harry Treadaway offered an outstanding performance which carried the rest of the cast in this haunting drama about a family grieving over the disappearance of a family member. There were elements of the movie The Sixth Sense, in that the character Matthew Ryan frequently saw and interacted with the deceased. His accounts were dismissed as delusional, which cast a shadow of doubt over the mental stability of this character. As the story unfolds it offers a unique twist on a serial killer while throwing a few weak but effective red herrings as to who the killer was. In the end I was delighted mostly from the performance of harry Treadaway, unknown to me until now, and secondly the bleak scenery which provided a very effective backdrop.
Denicio_Del_Toro Well acted, nicely shot, and with a solid score, this is a decent feature. It's only real flaws are an extremely derivative, and occasionally confused, plot; and some slightly clumsy dialogue at times.It looks good, without being spectacular, which entirely suits its council estate setting. Combined with excellent performances from the leads, it could almost work as a pure kitchen sink drama. Despite not being given much to say, Harry Treadaway and Greg Wise are a convincingly troubled father and son. The support is also broadly good; Tom Felton is particularly notable.The troubles come with the exasperatingly unoriginal plot - it borrows and from a whole selection of similar films. The good news is that it does choose some of the best to steal from; the trouble that it isn't good enough to stand up to these classics. However, it holds together well, at least until the latter stages, when a few too many extraneous ingredients are thrown into the pot.Broadly, a decent effort if not outstanding. Given the mechanics, I would be interested to see future work from the team behind it - they just need some more original ideas to start with.