Had an American horror director taken a stab at “The Disappeared,” you’d be treated to a generic rock soundtrack, pouty 20-something stars and a little blood and/or guts for your troubles.
Instead, the British suspense yarn, now available on IFC on Demand, strives for higher ground.
Who knew we’d miss those stale stateside horror conventions?
There are few things more frustrating than an ambitious chiller without a single fright. “The Disappeared,” for all its lofty intentions, will make audiences await the end credits.
Young Harry Treadaway stars as Matthew, a teen still mourning the disappearance of his younger brother, Tom. He was supposed to be watching out for Tom around the time he went missing, so his sense of guilt is nearly as palpable as the hurt he feels from his brother’s absence.
But is Tom really gone? Matthew starts to hear Tom speaking to him, whispers in the night or even faint echoes in the VHS tape of the news report of his disappearance.
Matthew’s best bud (“Harry Potter” mainstay Tom Felton) thinks he’s gone daft, and his father is too sad himself to offer much help. But Matthew keeps hearing – and seeing – traces of Tom. But is guilt giving his imagination something terrible to conjure?
“The Disappeared” is filmed almost entirely in Inka-vision, where there’s precious little color and too many scenes look like a starless night sky. It’s all toward establishing the proper mood, and to be fair director Johnny Kevorkian (what a great name for a horror maestro) ladles out the chilling atmosphere.
But Kervorkian’s film moves at a slower than glacial pace, and the occasional jolts feel imported from a cheesy horror remake, not the tense character study being attempted here.
Ros Leeming adds a dash of charisma as the mysterious Amy, a woman who seems to understand what Matthew is going through. But the rest of the film is a dour slog that wraps in a blur of action that’s difficult to discern and ill fitting for such a melancholy feature.
“The Disappeared” strains to be better than your average shock fest, but it ends up being the one thing a horror film should never be – dull.
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