Later, we see that one of the men had an episode of dementia in this place and he starts talking to himself. Even when they used special equipment to pick it up, the mercury leak is confirmed, for which they could be exposed. This is when the keepers pick up mercury from the floor, which had leaked from a mechanical part of the lighthouse. In “The Vanishing” there is a key moment in which it can be confirmed that the three men were exposed to mercury vapors. This poisoning was also known as the Mad Hatter Syndrome, given that hatters used mercury nitrate when making hats, and exposition to vapors of this compound caused dementia in hatters. A well-known character that expresses these effects is the hatter from Alice in Wonderland, who exhibits erratic and eccentric behavior. The death of this man is crucial, as it unleashes the paranoia and feeling of guilt because of his death and a chain of tense and violent events.Įven though mercury poisoning is not a common issue anymore, it was decades ago, when its effects were not fully understood. Then they found out that the reason he was so violent is that he had a chest with gold he was trying to protect. After inspecting the site, they found out that the man was not dead and that he was violent, which leads one of the keepers to kill him in self-defense. Later come some violent events, when after a storm, an apparently dead man and a boat reduced to smithereens is found at the edge of the island. This goes along with an important element, which, even though it is presented explicitly, nowhere in the movie an explicit link is made with the chain of events, which is mercury poisoning. In the end, the story moves in the drama field, in which it is explored how desolation, feeling of guilt and paranoia play with the mental health of these people. Curiosity and ambiguity are its best calling cards. The true story of the disappearances is not known, and the range of possibilities is broad. The first question to struck me after hearing about this movie was how much horror elements would it really have.
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