Sadly, I have to give this movie a THUMBS DOWN. I don't recommend you watch it.

This movie has many good aspects. There are noteworthy things in the writing, acting, and directing. It is surprisingly good for a TV movie. (I saw it on the Lifetime Network in Nov-2008.) Some of the comments on IMDb accuse the movie of being cliché. I don't think that's fair. It certainly echoes and builds upon other horror movies. I thought it had a great deal in common with The Hills Have Eyes. There is an Invasion of the Body Snatchers aspect, and maybe a slight Poltergeist aspect. But it wasn't cliché.

Actually, I think this movie is superior to The Hills Have Eyes. It manages to build a greater level of suspense, and it does so with virtually zero gore. That is a notable achievement. You can let older children watch this movie without worrying about scarring them psychologically, but mature fans of horror will still be on the edge of their seats the whole time.

Another great thing about this movie is that, whereas in most horror movies the characters always make the WRONG choices (which is frustrating to the audience), in this movie the characters contemplate the wrong choices but then end up making the RIGHT choices. This adds to the suspense, and makes it all the more surprising when those choices go wrong. I found that refreshing. (An example: neat the end of the movie, the father decides to drive to a neighboring town instead of staying in the possessed town. From the audience's point of view, the father makes the right choice, but then everything goes wrong anyways.)

HOWEVER... although there are good things in this movie, the ending sucks. It sucks just as badly as all the comments on IMDb say it does.

The ending sucks because a) there are too many unanswered questions, and b) there is not a sufficient explanation for who the villain was, and what the actual fate of the family was.

As for the unanswered questions... we never knew how the boy disappeared in the desert, or what happened to him while he was gone. We never found out who was stealing belongings and sorting them into piles in the mine shaft, or why. We never found out if there was a supernatural aspect to the sand storms. We never found out exactly what happened in the ghost town. We never found out how the father walked in a straight line but still ended up back at the ghost town.

The movie suggests three possible explanations for the mysterious antagonist:

1- Descendants of neutron bomb victims who refused to evacuate.

2- Angry Native American spirits -- the ghost town having been built on a grave.

3- Aliens.

These are the three theories that the guy in the jail cell tells the father.

But the movie gives clues that are at odds with each other.

=> The glass bomb site and the snorting creature in the mine shaft suggest MUTANTS.

=> The symbolic layout of the abandoned cars and the raven suggest Indian SPIRITS.

=> The Stepford town, the woman from the video working at the fast food place, and the ultimate possession of the family suggest ALIENS.

This is confusing and frustrating for the audience.

The movie is good enough that it makes you really want a resolution. But the answers cannot be found within the movie itself, nor can you extrapolate the answers from the given clues. Therefore, despite the good aspects of the script, the direction, and the acting, the experience of watching this movie is ultimately highly dissatisfying.

I must say that this movie was very peculiar. Yes, Harry Hamlin is a handsome guy and the previews for the movie seemed decent but I warn you to sit down and watch this television movie with a friend or family member. The supernatural plays an important role in this movie. Harry Hamlin and his family are trapped in a ghost mining town called Weaver. What is eerie, is the fact that nobody claims to know anything about it. It's suspenseful the entire way through and the ending is a bit disappointing. But it's a good movie to give you a scary "boo." Don't expect too much....Have fun

**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.