Vanishing is predictable, but still very frightening new thriller

Imagine you are walking down empty sidewalks and streets to find that the only things left are a graveyard of empty clothes, reminding you that you're all alone before the day turns into night.

Vanishing on 7th Street, the latest suspenseful thriller from director Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Machinist) follows a group of four strangers coming together to survive a common fear, the dark.

Finding themselves in the now deserted city of Detroit, Mich., the days become shorter as the sun begins to set faster. With these shorter days, it leaves little time before everything descends into darkness.

Lucas (Hayden Christensen), Rosemary (Thadie Newton), Paul (John Leguizamo) and James (Jacob Latimore) find themselves to be the only survivors. They find refuge in a local bar, running on a power generator that will only keep them safe for so long as they try to find a way to escape the city and the darkness.

The eerie, mysterious enemy that is the dark begins to personify over time. The darkness comes in waves, but as the movie progresses you can see that the darkness has a mind of its own.

Sometimes taking the form of shadows and human silhouettes, you aren't sure what exactly it is that they are running from. Whether it is a force or an actual creature, no one wants to wait around to find out.

While the survivors try to figure out why they survived this apocalyptic event, it is revealed that is it the presence of light that keeps them alive. Being around their own light source when darkness descended and everyone vanished is how the four came to survive while losing their loved ones. Any light source like a simple lighter, glow stick or even children's light up shoes can be the very thing that saves your life.

The conflicts of light versus dark and good versus evil are not hard to decode from the plot. As the movie progresses, the darkness becomes more apparent.

Lurking in the shadows and creeping in corners, you also begin to hear voices and faint whispers as it comes closer. Paul, who is attacked by the darkness, then reveals that it is as if they are not fighting to survive, but rather, fighting to exist.

Existentialism, a surprising topic to encounter in the rather black and white, or light and dark, plot, does add some depth to the storyline. Each character then begins to evaluate their life in a sense, as each recounts what it is in the world that they fight or fought for, hoping to give them the motivation to find a way out.

The characters develop drastically, going from emotions of panic and struggle to an "every man for himself" mindset. The cat and mouse chase between the survivors and the shadows becomes a bit tiring over time.

Like any thriller movie plotline, you are just waiting for the survivor count to lower so you can finally see if the one survivor, the hero, will win against the evil force.

Vanishing on 7th Street may be predictable like many thrillers in a sense, but it will leave you wanting to carry a flashlight with you nonetheless.