There’s a really neat looking slow-burn thriller on the horizon called The Vanishing, starring 300 and Olympus Has Fallen’s Gerard Butler. Despite the title coming across as some sort of action-packed, kill-or-killed flick, it’s actually a lot more nuanced and complex than that since it’s based on true events.

I was a little shocked to find that Saban Films helped produce it, but The Vanishing is a Scottish flick from Mad As Birds and Cross Creek Pictures about three lighthouse operators who are assigned a six week shift on a lonely little island where their job is to operate a lighthouse for passing ships. However, things take a rather dire turn when one of them happens upon another murdered lighthouse operator.

Things devolve even more when the trio discover a locked chest that has solid gold bars inside, where greed and trust become a factor for the three men who have to stick out their six week stint. Except, they end up murdering one of the other lighthouse keepers who came before them, and then end up in a fight for survival for the men looking for their gold. You can check out the trailer below courtesy of Rapid Trailer.

The trailer basically follows the three men as tempers, tension, and the tenuous situation they’re involved in continues to unravel over the course of those six weeks while they’re out on the island.

When additional men come looking for their gold things take an even worse turn, as torture, violence, and more murder ensues.

How much would poor lighthouse keepers be willing to risk for a few bars of gold? It’s all a rather fascinating trip down an event that happened in real life.

I think my one major criticism is that the trailer gives away way too much of the film, and I would have left out all of the bloody violence and the reveal of the opposing lighthouse keepers and avoid showing what was in the box. The audience would have been absolutely hooked if they were left wondering what was in the wooden box, and if they were never shown what happened to the young man who checked on the body by the rocks. It amazes me how poorly some marketers are at their job and creating proper tension for certain kinds of movies.

It would have seemed like a film like this should have a trailer that basically edited itself. Anyway, The Vanishing is coming soon to theaters.