By Melissa Antoinette Garza
I love films like this. Movies that pay tribute to shows like The Twilight Zone (1959). The movie opens with ten friends going away for a weekend to a lodge in a remote location that is three hours away from anywhere. By the time the group arrives all of their vehicles are nearing empty, but they knew the place they were going had gasoline to refill as they made their reservation online.
When the group arrives, they enter the cabin and see that no one is there. Even the owners and employees are nowhere to be found. Stranger still, food that is half-eaten is left behind as if someone ran out in a rush and in the middle of their meal. A bath is filled with water, but it’s evident no one ever used the water. Clothing and belongings were scattered around the lodge, which further disturbed them.
The group decides to look around believing possibly an emergency drove everyone away. While searching, they discover that not only are people gone, but so are animals and insects. There are no birds chirping nor any sounds of any kind. The air is unusually cool and a nearby pond has frozen over. In the middle of the ice, a boat is seen with fishing poles but no sign of the fishermen. Soon, the majority of the group decides to leave. Unfortunately, the gas pump on location needs a key which no one can find. They opt to siphon the gas out of all the vehicles and put it into one, but they find even by doing so they have only a half a tank which would just get them lost in the middle of nowhere.
Reluctantly, they decide to stay. Just as they make the decision, one group member disappears. Jack (Brian Austin Green), devastated that his girlfriend Tracy (Mena Suvari) vanished is even more determined to stay. They decide to remain in a single room together and stare at one another, but that doesn’t stop whatever force is taking them. The group continues to dwindle and people who are standing there a second later is gone without a trace – as if they never existed.
As more people evaporate into thin air, the group begins to turn on one another. This reminded me of my favorite Twilight Zone episode The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. Like the episode, the characters aren’t idiots. They’re intelligent human beings who on a normal day would get a long great, but when catastrophe strikes, they turn on each other. They belittle philosophical and religious beliefs and even go so far as to try and murder one another.
Overall this is a great film. Below I’m going to go into some spoilers and speculations but prior to that I want to advise that I definitely suggest this movie. The cast is stellar. Zack Ward gives a stand-out performance as Alex, a character who from the start wants to leave and is savvy enough to know something isn’t right. As his mental state diminishes, he becomes villainous and portrays it in a realistic and genuine way. He is certainly someone who can deliver a multifaceted performance and I hope to see him as the lead in a large production soon.
SPOILERS:
At the end of the movie, there is one lone survivor as police arrive. There are ambulances, fire trucks, regular police and government officials. Claire (Joanne Kelly) sits in the back of the police car and as a man all in black leans in, he asks if she’s with anyone. She says “no” and warns him not to blink. He answers, “I never do” alluding that he knows what’s going on. In the end, it appears that all of the officials have disappeared and lastly Claire does as well, without any real answers provided. Yet there are clues throughout the film which I’ll lay out here with the hopes of coming to a theory which holds water as not knowing bugs the hell out of me.
Clue 1 – Whatever occurred and took the group, also made all other living creatures disappear but plants, trees, grass and inanimate objects remain. Still, it does change the weather and make it much colder than it should be.
Clue 2 – Anything the individual has done vanishes as well. When Alex kills himself, he still vanishes and all of the blood left behind from him and from someone he shot vanishes as well.
Clue 3 – Prior to being taken, the person knows for a brief moment as one girl says, “I’m going now” right before she leaves.
Clue 4 – People who were there before encountered the same thing as someone hiding in the cabinet hoping for whatever it is to skip them wrote “Help me” on the cabinet and another wrote “Don’t Blink” on a mirror. There was also a noose hanging from the ceiling hinting that the person who hung himself vanished just like Alex did after his demise.
Clue 5 – The “man in black” knew what was going on as he said that there wasn’t much time and said he never blinks.
Clue 6 – If anyone tries to leave the area they vanish before hitting the road hinting that whatever is causing this is a conscious entity that prevents any survivors.
My theory: The government conducted a test similar to the Philadelphia Experiment without telling the “participants” they were going to be evaluated. They needed to modify the temperature of the surrounding location so that it would work. Their goal seemingly was to make any target vanish without a sign of them ever existing or of the government being responsible for their demise. (a.e. if the government wanted Fidel Castro dead, instead of having all of these embarrassing foiled murder plots exposed, they would simply make him disappear.) The experiment was a success and the government needed to ensure there were no survivors to reveal what actually occurred. They also needed to make certain that even the dead disappeared without a trace. This included the police and ambulance. I believe the only ones who walked out alive were the men in black who admitted to never blinking. That’s why the Man in Black asked if the survivor was alone or not and why when one of the group tried to drive away he disappeared while driving. Where do they go? I think they literally become non-existent in the same way Atheists believe that nothing happens upon death. They’re just gone. In the end, if this theory is correct I’d compare it to The Cabin in the Woods meeting a better version of Stephen King’s The Langoliers.
Lastly, the hubby would greatly appreciate me mentioning that this took a lot (including its title) from the episode Blink of series three of Doctor Who (2007). Just google “Don’t Blink” under images. As I tried to find a picture for this film, I passed a hundred for the Doctor Who episode.
Anyway with this movie you will get more suspense than most of the top live chat sites.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7.5/10
I like your theory but what if instead of non existent, they actually just become alone. So when she blinked in the police car, they’re still there, but she disappeared but to her everyone else disappeared. But that doesn’t explain why Noah came back. So maybe they are transported somewhere with no memory of the incident. Only Noah was transported nearby instead of Abu dabi. What do u think of these theories?
I just need a cosigner so I can feel at peace with the movie’s ending. It was pretty good though.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it, so I feel badly not being able to give you a definitive opinion. That said, from what I remember that’s definitely a possibility – the only hole I see is that they knew they were going somewhere before it happened so I think that whatever took them or wherever they went they knew they were somewhere else or nowhere. I wish there was more information from the powers-that-be but either they don’t have a clue as to what the “real” answer is or they wish to leave it up to us to speculate. I kind of like the latter as I do love speculating 🙂 Thanks for the read and the comment!
Some of my theories are,
1) They were all already dead and they were in some kind of ghostly plane/limbo waiting to move on to heaven/hell?
2) The only person who really existed was the lady at the end and the others were in her head?
3) Some kind of Area 51 (a lot of alien activity around that area and people were abducted)?
4) As you said some kinda government cover up?
Also I’m not sure about everyone who leaves vanishes because the girl doesn’t vanish in the car only the guy?
I think the woman wanted to disappear (was asking to) not so much knew it was going to happen. (Just given up) because at the start no one else knew when it was going to happen eg the woman behind the fridge the guy who vanishes behind the table etc.