New to Netflix from today is the Italian mystery thriller, Vanished Into the Night (aka Svaniti Nella Notte). Directed by Renato De Maria, and based on the film Séptimo, the movie stars Annabelle Wallis, Riccardo Scamarcio, and Massimiliano Gallo, and tells the story of a father searching for his missing children.
In the movie, Pietro La Torre and Elena Walgren are a formerly happy couple, currently at a new stage in their lives. After years of love and happiness living in Bari, Italy, their relationship has broken down and they are now in the process of organising custody of their two children, Giovanni and Bianca.
But Pietro has other problems on his hands. He owes money to some local heavies, and they are keen for him to pay it back through the sale of his guest house – something which Pietro refuses to do.
One night, while looking after his children, Giovanni and Bianca, Pietro’s kids suddenly vanish. One minute they are in their beds and the next minute they are gone.
After a frantic search, Pietro receives a telephone call. The voice on the end of the phone informs him the children have been kidnapped and are being ransomed.
If Pietro agrees to pay 150,000 euros within the next day, his children will be returned. If he refuses, or he can’t drum up the money, he will never see Giovanni and Bianca again.
Put together fairly well, and featuring a decent cast, specifically Riccardo Scamarcio as Pietro, Vanished Into the Night is a decent if mostly unremarkable crime thriller. It looks good, it drifts along as you might imagine, just don’t expect anything particularly amazing or exciting for the vast majority of the film’s runtime.
With the exception of one significant element, which doesn’t really kick in until after the first hour, Vanished Into the Night is very much nuts and bolts stuff. Pietro and Elena lose their kids, Pietro sets out to find them, things go a bit dark.
He searches various places, hops on a boat and a bus, and runs down some roads. Some drugs are thrown into the mix, along with a gun, and he gets a bit bloodied and bruised.
If this was an American movie, rather than an Italian production, there would be a fair bit of violence in the film and Liam Neeson would probably turn up boasting a special set of skills. However, that’s not really the case here, and the action level is more or less non-existent.
Instead, the film moves from A to B to C, with a quick jump to F, before returning back to D and resuming normality. The significant thing which kicks in two-thirds of the way through the film teases something interesting and unexpected, but it never goes to the place you hope it might and the movie instead plods along as normal.
As noted above, Riccardo Scamarcio is particularly strong as Pietro and he makes the movie worth watching. He plays the role of a concerned and determined father very well, and brings the required amount of grit to the role.
It’s a shame the film doesn’t quite push beyond its basic premise, as Scamarcio demonstrates the skills required to take this picture to another level. If this were more of a psychological thriller, then I am in no doubt he could tackle whatever is thrown at him.
However, as it stands, he does everything he needs to, in order to sell the drama, and if you end up sticking with the film it’ll largely be because of him. To reiterate, it’s fine, just nothing amazing.
Vanished Into the Night has all the potential to be a truly dark thriller, but it largely plays things safe. It never quite takes advantage of what it has at its disposal, but there’s no major need to pick it apart either.
The film is more or less exactly what you expect it to be and that’s fine. No one is going to be entranced by it, but as a kidnap/crime thrillers go it’s watchable.
—
—
Thank you for taking the time to read this review on It’s A Stampede!. For more reviews, check out the recommended reads below.
It's A Stampede! 
Leave a comment