Entertainment

Vanishing on 7th Street

What happens when a disparate group who may be the last people on Earth walk into a Detroit bar? Brad Anderson’s creepily effective low-budget thriller may not have a punch line worthy of your typical “Twilight Zone” episode, but it otherwise gets the job done in under an hour and a half with a good cast.

When a massive blackout plunges Motown into darkness, people start vanishing during the ever-lengthening nights that follow, leaving behind piles of empty clothes, abandoned cars and dead cellphones. All that’s really clear is that the only safe haven is a well-lit bar, where a shotgun-toting youngster (Jacob Latimore) waiting for his mother to return keeps the emergency generator humming in the basement.

Soon he’s joined by a smug TV journalist (Hayden Christensen), a doctor (Thandie Newton) looking for her son and a movie projectionist played by John Leguizamo. “Vanishing on 7th Street” is not as elaborate or entertaining as Anderson’s last feature, “Transsiberian,” but it’s got enough shocks for an entirely respectable addition to the post-apocalyptic genre.