**SPOILERS** "Disappearance" is a movie with a beginning middle and absolutely no ending. Were, the audience and cast, are jerked around for almost the entire film and when it comes for what were expecting in a surprise ending or big payoff that would ties all the loose ends in the movie together we get a town full of Zombies instead. Theses Zombies act and seem as if they were lobotomized by either aliens from outer space or a super secret agency of the US Government. The persons in the town, as well as those who visited it, of Two Wells were made to forget everything what they saw and knew about this rinky dink of a desert ghost town called Weaver Nevada.

Driving through the desert with his wife family and friend Jim Henely, Harry Hamlin, ends up taking a short cut that lands him & Co. in this out of the way ghost town called Weaver. It's not long that Jim realizes that he took a wrong turn with the town being deserted since 1948. It turned out that a neutron bomb was detonated outside of Weaver in September 1948 that wiped out the towns, or those who refused to leave, entire population.

If a neutron bomb wasn't enough for the audience, as well as Jim Henley and family & friend, to ponder were also given clues by a local jailed alcoholic Lester, Roger Newcombe, that the legendary Area 51 as well as American Indian ghosts from the past have a hand in the crazy goings on in and around Weaver. During the Henley's stay at Weaver Jim's wife Patty, Susan Dey, ends up falling down a mine shaft and Matt's Henley's, Jeremy Lelliott, friend Eathen,Jamie Croft, ends up getting lost in the desert right under the nose of Jim Henley.

These events, Patty's accident and Ethen's disappearance, in the end have nothing really to do with what's going on in the movie. They seem to have been put in to either confused the audience or pad the film to achieve for t an over 90 minutes running time. The movie's plot seems to be a cross between "The Hills have Eyes" and "Village of the Damned" with a lot of "Conspericey Theory" thrown in for good measure minus any kind of real or satisfying ending at all.

We almost get a hint of what's really going on in both Weaver and it's neighboring town Two Wells when little Kate Henely, Basia A'Hern, spots at a local Two Well's hamburger stand this waitress that she recognized to have been killed, in a video tape that was found in Weaver, some time ago. It's only later that it's revealed that whoever that waitress was she as well as the entire town of Two Wells ended up there against their will but why they did it's never explained!

The ending of the movie is a real mind-blower in that it purposely leaves it's audience up in the air to what was really going on. It gives you the impression that whatever was going on in the movie will keep happening as long a there's people traveling, like the bikers at the end of the film, through that God-forsaken town who will end up, unwillingly, becoming residents of Two Wells Nevada.

Disappearance is about a couple who take their family on vacation in New Mexico and find themselves in deep trouble after taking a detour off the main highway to visit a town that was seemingly abandoned in 1948 for unknown reasons. The town of Weaver seems harmless at first and has tourist appeal until the family is stranded there overnight and they begin to have good reason to suspect that others have experienced their same predicament with fatal outcomes. The Henleys watch a Blair-Witch-Project-esquire video diary left by the town's last victim, which ironically demonstrates the best performance of anyone in this movie. Although Hamlin and Dey's performances are much better than the supporting casts', their emotional affect seems "flat" to me throughout the movie.

Disappearance has appeal for most of the movie as there is much suspense and good direction. However, the plot takes unexpected and implausible turns that seemingly make no sense. Worse yet it that there really is no understanding of what exactly is going on in the movie, which makes the bizarre ending less tolerable. It appeared to me that the movie makers were so focused on making a stream of suspenseful scenes, that they threw away all the elements of good story making: plot development, gradual explanation of themes and symbols that lead to a cohesive solution/outcome.

The most difficult aspect of the movie for me was that the first three-quarter of it was spent building up tension and curiosity about certain aspects of the plot that were then suddenly disposed of as if we didn't deserve an explanation:

What was the significance of the Indian symbols on the walls? What happened to the original people of Weaver? What was the connection with the people at the dinner? What did the Sheriff know? What did the missing boy discover if anything?

This was, I believe, a bad move, since it engendered some resentment. I had invested quite a bit of brainpower into hypothesizing some plausible explanations for some of these plot turns and strange events, only to have the movie makers simply end it without giving an answer to any of these things. These are some nice cliffhangers for the ending of a miniseries that is about to pickup again next week, but a totally frustrating and inappropriate ending for a stand-alone movie.

This movie kept me on the edge of my seat until the final few minutes of it. The conclusion left many unanswered questions. With a different ending it would be 5 stars. I would give it 4. The characters are believable and the kids' weren't annoying. I would compare it to a 2 hour Twilight Zone episode.