Monika’s Pensieve

{FILM DIARY}

The Disappeared (UK, 2008)

Seen: Sunday, 7th March 2010 (DVD)
Runtime: 96′
Director: Johnny Kevorkian
Cast: Harry Treadaway, Greg Wise, Tom Felton
Production House: Lost Tribe Productions, Minds Eye Films
Plot: (from imdb)

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.

Trailer

Rating: 0 (Ok)
If I’m marking on the -0 and +0 scale then it’s +0 :)

Impressions In Short
It’s a very stylish and rather unusual horror movie. There’s no gore and a lot of the tension is just the result of how Matthew (whose sanity is very questionable) interacts with other people and how he perceives the world. In the end there’s relatively little of the supernatural going on. It’s part horror, part crime, part social drama.

More About the Film
I naturally watched this film because of Tom Felton (duh!) and he is very good in it. He plays Matthew’s best friend, Simon. It’s interesting to see him in something which is so realistic rather than the stuff he’s done before which is very bigger than life. Simon is just a normal working class guy living on a London housing estate. Even though the part is small, it has a relatively broad emotional scape. At the beginning Simon is a little nasty. The scene on the trailer where he tells Matthew that there’s a phenomenon where dead people’s voices get recorded on tapes - he’s making that up. He’s just saying it because it amuses him that Matthew is taking this so seriously. But eventually he goes through his own loss (there’s quite an intense scene after Simon’s little sister goes missing) and he also shows some genuine concern for Matthew.
The cast is generally very stellar. Even the bit parts are cast very well and everyone gives good performances. Harry Treadaway does really well with portraying Matthew’s state of mind - he’s never fake. Greg Wise is great as Matthew’s father - very intense.
Visually the film has style as well - it’s a very grim and gritty kind of film. Considering what a low budget piece of filmmaking it is, it’s very impressive actually.

Recommended?
For fans of any of the cast - definitely. And I suppose that if you feel that a small independent and gritty horror movie might be your thing then this is definitely worth a look.