Wonderful Movie

Such a frustrating disappointment

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

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

I was pleasantly surprised at the overall quality of this indie effort. From the opening scene the tension in the father/son relationship is palpable and they maintain the intensity w/o too much dialog to rely on. Kudos to both actors for very strong performances. The look and feel of this movie are spot on and the score is also an asset. The editing was a bit choppy and the film did seem to drag a little but there were no scenes that felt like they should have been left on the cutting room floor. I was confused at times and that added to the feeling that I just wanted them to get on with it, so to speak. Where the effort falls short is in the ending. It does build to a point and then the writing fails the actors. The last 20 minutes are cliché ridden and lack any originality. Come on, the pedophile who isn't who he says he is and oh yeah, by the way, he also happens to wear his collar backwards? The communications with dead people cross a line that Sixth Sense never did. We watch as the murderer has his head bashed in (4 violent blows) with a rather large stone and he disappears before the police arrive. It feels like they tried to address all the misdirections and somehow made things more confusing. I must say that the ending left a very bad taste in my mouth. This is sad mostly because of the very solid effort that preceded it. The writers and production staff deserve high marks for making a film that came so very close to being something special but in the end(literally) fell short. One final comment about the cast. What made this movie good were the performances from top to bottom. They all deserve praise and applause fr their efforts.

The Disappeared is set in a rundown working class region of England & starts as teenager Matthew Ryan (Harry Treadaway) is released from hospital, going home with his father Jake (Greg Wise) there is an undeniable tension between the two over the disappearance of Matthew's younger brother Tom. One blames the other although it was Matthew's responsibility to look after Tom when he disappeared, Matthew was at a party & let Tom wander outside at night on his own from which point he hasn't been seen again. Matthew starts to hears Tom's voice, Matthew thinks he sees quick flashes of Tom & becomes convinced that his missing brother is trying to tell him something. His father thinks Matthew is crazy but after following the clues & messages Matthew thinks he has discovered what happened to Tom...This British production was co-written, co-produced & directed by Johnny Kevorkian & like so many low budget wannabe classic films that do the rounds at festivals & get great write-ups I simply cannot see what the fuss is about, I found The Disappeared a dreary thriller with slight supernatural overtones that in the end felt to me like a much more grim take on The Sixth Sense (1999) with the main twist at the end. Seriously, The Disappeared is basically a depressing take on The Sixth Sense & I stand by the fact I think the ending of the two films are very similar. I am not quite sure what the makers of The Disappeared were aiming for or who they thought their audience would be, the majority of The Disappeared feels like a gritty British drama set on a scummy rundown council estate (don't knock them, people have to live in these places) where nothing good ever happens as it's always grey, depressing & full of yobs, the unemployed & abused children. The Disappeared certainly tries to show the uglier side of Britain & what the working class way of life. The first thirty odd minutes is decent enough drama I suppose but then the supernatural aspect is gradually introduced, first it's just voices but soon develops into visiting ghost's & seeing strange religious symbols. I wasn't keen on the ending either, the paedophile priest is something that we have all become aware of because of the media here in the UK so again the makers take delight in showing the seedier & nastier side of British life to no great effect. The twist reveal at the end doesn't even make that much sense, while Matthew supposedly killed the villain it's also said later the body was never found so what gives? At an hour & a half it drags a little in places & I can't say I was enthralled although it does have it's moments & can be quite powerful at times.Although almost certainly deliberate The Disappeared has a really grey, dreary & dull look about it with no bright colours evident at all. The real life scummy council estate location looks suitably rank & I can confirm there are places that ratty here in the UK. There is definitely an atmosphere here, not a scary one but a depressing downbeat one that makes The Disappeared a little soul destroying to watch at times. The script takes itself very seriously & there's no comic relief or throwaway humour here at all. Violence & gore is minimal, in fact I can't remember any gore at all but that's clearly not what The Disappeared is about. It's about grief, it's about relationships, it's about an atmosphere of hopelessness & it's about the supernatural.Filmed on location here in the UK in London The Disappeared does look pretty good, the production values are solid but the final ten minutes or so are too dark & there's too much of that shaky camera rubbish. The cast do a great job to be fair, the leads are excellent but in a way that makes the film even more downbeat than it already is.The Disappeared is a film that I can look at & see that it's very well made with excellent acting & a potentially strong story but the whole downbeat atmosphere, The Sixth Sense twist & questions left unanswered by the conclusion left me feeling underwhelmed. Some may like it's gritty approach but I didn't I'm afraid.

Saw this film last night at the ICA and then afterwards there was a Q&A session which included Tom and Johnny Kevorkian and Neil Murphy who both co-wrote and co-produced the film. The film was excellent. Very atmospheric and probably more frightening because it is set in such a mundane setting. Not Gothic horror but backyard horror - but horror nonetheless. The acting was superb by the young cast leads, Harry Treadaway and Tom Felton. The cinematography used a colour palate that reflected the dreary humdrum life that was obviously the norm for the characters. The editing could have been tightened up a little but overall the pace was well set. The music was perfectly written to reflect everything you saw on screen without being dominant or leading where the screen images didn't follow.A truly frightening experience but one I can well recommend.