With "Vaniished," Zach Cregger films the nightmare lurking beneath ordinary America

THE WORLD'S OPINION – NOT TO BE MISSED

At a time when Hollywood only produces remakes, franchises or calibrated sequels, the horror genre remains one of the rare spaces where a new gesture can sometimes emerge. Vanishing , Zach Cregger's second solo feature film, after Barbarian (2022), proves this once again, proving to be one of the most astonishing films of the season: a sinuous fable at the crossroads of numerous influences (provincial gothic, invasion story, waking nightmare), dotted with striking visions of terror.

A former comedian from the American comedy scene, Zach Cregger, born in 1981, has retained from classic B-movies the concern to unearth deep fears in the corners of ordinary reality. The setting will be that of a small Pennsylvania town, one of those that might believe itself to have emerged from history, but where a great return of the irrational is brewing.

It all begins under the auspices of a tale: a childish voiceover recalls strange events from a buried past. One evening, at 2:17 a.m., about twenty children got up from their beds and disappeared, all from the same class except for one, Alex, a scapegoat, who was curiously spared. The scene is imbued with great poetry. To a melancholic folk tune, these silhouettes, called by the night, cut straight through the empty spaces, hollowed out by shadows, of suburban America.

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