A family vacation takes a terrifying turn when parents Paul and Wendy discover their young daughter has vanished without a trace. Stopping at nothing to find her, the search for the truth leads to a shocking revelation in this psychological thriller.
“The Vanished” brings us into the world of Paul and Wendy (Thomas Jane and Anne Heche) as they head to a family getaway with their daughter Taylor (Kk Heim). They arrive at a remote campground and begin their vacation, excited to spend time with each other. The campground is shared with only a handful of people: the owner and his groundskeeper and a newlywed couple. Soon after, Taylor goes missing without a trace and so begins the mystery. Paul and Wendy seem to be driven by sheer desperation as they begin to investigate on their own after the local police are unable to provide any answers. It becomes evident that everyone is hiding a secret and possibly hiding their daughter.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with the premise of “The Vanished” but the execution falls flat. The storyline is filled with needless details and a convoluted explanation that leaves you with more questions than answers. The more we learn about the truth of everything happening and everyone involved, it becomes a very convenient story that clicks all into place without truly being earned. After learning of Paul and Wendy’s issues with their Folie a Deux (a shared delusion) of Taylor’s death years before this current situation, we are also aware that their delusions never escalated beyond the privacy of their home. It’s not until they decide to leave the privacy of their home that they start to cause issues for others that they’ve dragged into their delusion.
We are introduced to a group of people that are in the area when Taylor “disappears.” A newlywed couple camping out, the owner of the campground, and a young groundskeeper who lives on the grounds. As Paul and Wendy fall into their desperation, they wind up murdering the newlyweds, exposing the owner as a child predator and possible trafficker, and revealing the groundskeeper’s drug addiction. It becomes apparent that everything is true that has been uncovered except that Taylor isn’t really missing. After the police become aware of Paul’s involvement with one of the murders, they are told everything once they contact Paul’s brother who reveals the couples’ mental fragility. Paul and Wendy leave after a misleading conversation to “let go” of Taylor only to show them falling back into the cycle. Thus, ending this story.
Except now there are so many questions about what was truly happening during this Taylor fiasco. Are Paul and Wendy aware they are criminals on the run or do they believe they are just a regular family? It’s probably inevitable they will be caught because the FBI is aware of them now that they revealed the owner as a pedophile. The more I analyze, the clearer it seems that the film used up all its runway and still had more to tell. The side story of the sheriff’s personal life does nothing to progress or contribute to the main story. Everything that transpired seemed to only happen because Paul and Wendy decided to leave the confines of their home and spread their delusions. Maybe with a restructured script the film could execute a better bait and switch with the truth of Taylor but instead comes off clichéd.
Available on DVD and Digital October 20th
