The Vanishing Tour (2026) Marina Del Rey Film Festival

Patrick Meaney returns with a horror/science fiction film that bends genres and recalls some of the great exploitation drive-in films of the 1970's and 80's. 

After a gig that kind of dies on the vine, a band packs up and heads off into the night and their next concert. Unfortunately, the trip goes wrong, they get car jacked and end up wandering in the desert. Salvation comes when they find a compound in the middle of nowhere, but there are complications.

I won't say anymore because what happens is the film and that involves a lot of unexpected twists and turns. I am also taking this stance because in addition to my not being certain how do I explain what happens and how much to reveal, I'm saw the film very early, so I don't want to be "that guy" who spoils everything before the first audience is seated.

And I truly mean the script has some genuine surprises in it. There was more than a couple of times where things happened, and I ended up leaning in because each turn put me some place else with each turn building on what went before. Best of all the script messes with our expectations. writer Director Patrick Meaney is a student of genre films, and he knows how to use audience expectations to trick us into thinking we know what is happening, before pulling the rug out from under us.

That the film works as well as it does is that Meaney has given us a first-rate cast. Several of them have worked with Meaney before, appearing in HOUSE OF DEMONS or THE BRINK OF..., and some have not. Either way the mesh together nicely with no one giving a bad performance.

I really like this film a great deal. While the film isn't scary in a "jump scare" sort of way, it is a one that gives you chills as the revelations make you go "oh crap". It's a film that hangs with you as the credits roll because the tension isn't full released. I like these sorts of films more than the jump scare variety because they force you to carry the film with you long past the closing credits. THE VANISHING TOUR hangs with you.

See it.

The film premieres Saturday June 20th at the Marina Del Rey Film Festival and is worth your time and a bucket of popcorn.