The rule of the shadows

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Movie
German title The rule of the shadows
Original title Vanishing on 7th Street
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2011
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Brad Anderson
script Anthony Jaswinski
production Tove Christensen
Norton Herrick
Celine Rattray
music Lucas Vidal
camera Uta Briesewitz
cut Jeffrey Wolf
occupation

Vanishing is an American post-apocalyptic low-budget - horror - thriller from the year 2011 by Brad Anderson with Hayden Christensen , John Leguizamo and Thandie Newton in the lead roles.

action

Without warning, all technical systems and lights fail worldwide and the majority of people disappear. Only her clothes remain. The few survivors are chased by mysterious shadows hiding in the dark. Only those who have light in the form of lamps, torches or the like can save themselves from the shadows. These people include Luke, Rosemary, Paul, and James, among others.

Luke, a reporter, wakes up the morning after the incident and, unsuspecting, extinguishes the candles that burned throughout the night. When he leaves the house, the picture is chaotic. Everywhere on the street and sidewalks there are orphaned clothes, and he also sees crashed vehicles, crashing planes, but not a single other person. Through a news broadcast from Chicago he learns that shadows are the cause of the incomprehensible and how they act. He also learns that they seize their victims through hallucinations and that they only have power in the dark, and there is advice on how to defend oneself against them. For the next three days, Luke only collects lamps and batteries and protects himself from anything that looks even remotely like a hallucination of the shadows. On his search in the city, he finds an illuminated restaurant at night that is supplied by an emergency generator. There he meets the boy James, who is waiting for his mother, whom he sorely misses, who just wanted to visit a church for a short time. Shortly thereafter, Rosemary joins them, who appears to be confused, and then they also rescue Paul, who had found refuge from the shadows in the cottage of an illuminated bus stop and was just able to escape an attack.

After these four people are back in the bar and have calmed down a bit, they discuss the possible causes of the incidents and are shocked when they suddenly discover that the emergency generator is about to fail. The survivors only have the choice of waiting until the generator fails completely, then surrendering to the shadows, or daring to flee forwards so that they might still be able to escape. Recalling the Chicago news broadcast, Luke suggests going there to look for more survivors. And so James and the injured Paul stay behind while Rosemary and Luke look for a working vehicle that night. You will find a car for four people, but the battery is empty. So Rosemary and Luke push him back to the bar where the backup power unit is. On the way, however, the lights fail, which is why they are forced to look for new light sources. In doing so, however, Rosemary succumbs to a hallucination of the shadows when she goes into the dark without light, and also disappears.

Luke has no choice but to return to the bar alone. There he only finds James. Paul has since fallen victim to the flickering light from the ailing emergency generator. So Luke and James set out to flee the shadows with the started car. When they stop the car briefly to collect the cables and close the hood, James discovers the church where he suspects his mother is and runs inside. However, he finds it empty and is on the verge of falling victim to the shadows himself when Luke breaks through the door with the car and uses its light to drive the shadows away. Luke gets out of the car and wants to run to James to save him, but at that very moment the engine fails, which means that the headlights go out and Luke becomes a victim of the shadows.

James hides behind a dimly lit wall of candles and survives the night. When he is woken up by little Brianna the next morning, he is surprised that she is still alive. Since the girl doesn't want to be alone, they both leave town on horseback. The sun sets quickly and the shadows approach the two children ominously. They direct the light of their flashlight on them.

Reviews

The film received mixed reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes website counted 25 positive out of 48 professional reviews. However, the film was poorly received by the general public, because at the same time only 21% of 13,396 users rated the film positively. This, in turn, is generally confirmed by the online film archive IMDb , because there 6,899 users gave the film an average of poor 4.9 out of 10 possible points. (As of July 17, 2011)

For Manohla Dargis of the New York Times , The Rule of the Shadows was more of an "extended episode of Twilight Zone, " based on a weakening script that the director could save halfway, although he was more skilled with the shadows than with the human Can avoid fates.

Betsy Sharkley of the Los Angeles Times criticized the “understatement of the script”, which was simply “more boohs! [...] and could have used screams ”. However, she also praised the director, the camerawoman and the production designer and said that the low-budget character of the film would not be seen.

Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter criticized that from "a horror film's point of view a better villain than the dark" had to be found. He also said that a “horror film doesn't necessarily need logic […], but a little less ridiculousness” would do the film quite well.

On critic.de Lida Bach said that the rule of the shadows is a "shadow play immersed in spooky semi-darkness" and "a chamber play largely limited to a dim bar", which is about the last people on earth and is "ingenious with [ of the "universal fear [...] of being alone".

The lexicon of international films meant that the film was a "dark, effectively staged horror film with a strong inner tension, which occasionally undermines the laws of logic".

background

  • Paul's reading at the beginning of the film, as well as the inscription CROATOAN on the bridge that moves Luke to turn around, allude to the story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke .
  • Thandie Newton's character Rosemary, as well as her story about the lost baby, is a reference to the film Rosemary's Baby by Roman Polański .
  • The film does not name the origin and cause of the incidents and the director Anderson also stated that on the one hand he made the film because of this and on the other hand had no explanation for it himself.
  • The film was shot in Detroit within 20 days of October 12, 2009 and well under the rumored budget of $ 10 million . The low-budget film benefited from the fact that on the one hand the state of Michigan offered ideal financial conditions, including a tax break of 42%, as well as subsidies for filming, and the locations in Detroit did not really have to be reworked by the production designers.

publication

After the film celebrated its world premiere on September 12, 2010 during the Toronto International Film Festival , it was shown again at the Torino Film Festival before it was initially available exclusively to Xbox and Zune owners as video-on-demand from January 7, 2011 was offered. On February 18, the film had its US theatrical release and it was only shown in one movie theater, with $ 2,898 of its $ 10 million production cost recouped. Overall, the film achieved US box office earnings of just over 22,000 US dollars and grossed just under one million US dollars worldwide. On August 26, 2011, the film was released in Germany on both DVD and Blu-ray under the title Die Herrschaft der Schatten .

Similar films

  • Quiet Earth , 1985 New Zealand science fiction film
  • Pulse , Japanese horror film from 2001

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vanishing on 7th Street. rottentomatoes.com, accessed July 17, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Manohla Dargis : Disappearing People, Leaving a Lot of Clothes Behind on nytimes.com, February 17, 2011, accessed July 17, 2011
  3. ↑ Betsy Sharkey: Movie review: 'Vanishing on 7th Street' on latimes.com from February 25, 2011 (English), accessed July 17, 2011
  4. ↑ Kirk Honeycutt Vanishing on 7th Street - Film Review on hollywoodreporter.com, January 6, 2011, accessed July 17, 2011
  5. ↑ Lida Bach: Die Herrschaft der Schatten on critic.de from June 22, 2011, accessed on July 21, 2011
  6. ↑ The Rulership of the Shadows. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Chris Eggertsen: Interview: 'Vanishing on 7th Street' Director Brad Anderson! on bloody-disgusting.com on February 16, 2011 (English), accessed on July 22, 2011
  8. ↑ Latest Casting for Brad Anderson's 'Vanishing on 7th Street' on bloody-disgusting.com from August 27, 2009, accessed July 22, 2011
  9. ↑ Annlee Ellingson: A Nightmare on '7th Street'  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on movingpicturesnetwork.com on February 24, 2011 (English), accessed on July 22, 2011@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.movingpicturesnetwork.com  
  10. ↑ Karen Benardello: Exclusive: Director Brad Anderson Interview on Vanishing on 7th Street at shockya.com , accessed July 22, 2011
  11. ^ Vanishing on 7th Street at boxofficemojo.com , accessed July 17, 2011