SnoopyStyle Rex and Saskia are driving on a holiday. They have a fight and make up. At a gas station, Saskia disappears. Rex relentlessly searches for her. Raymond is outwardly a normal family man. In secret, he's been methodically preparing to satisfy his evil desires. He had kidnapped Saskia. Three years later, Rex is still looking for Saskia and has new girlfriend Lieneke. Evenutally Lieneke leaves him. He gets an offer from Raymond to reveal the truth of what happened.This is a cold-hearted character. The situation is intensely harrowing. It's not really a mystery because the killer is revealed quite early on. What it does is it shakes the viewer to the core. Raymond is unrelenting. We see this through Rex's eyes and it's a runaway train. The tragedy unrolls and the audience is helpless in its face.

avik-basu1889 The basic storyline of 'The Vanishing' involves a Dutch couple namely Saskia and Rex who have come to France as tourists with the intention of spending their vacation together. But they get separated when Saskia suddenly vanishes in thin air. Rex obsessively tries to find out what happened to her over the next few years while experiencing constant frustration and the film comes to a terrifying conclusion.I am writing this review after watching this for the 2nd time. After my first viewing I remember liking this very much. But after having watched this again, I have no hesitation in stating that I now love this film. There are so many things that I missed on my first viewing which I noticed now. Even though I knew what was coming and what the final climax will be all about, but I still think that the my 2nd viewing was more stimulating than the first one.First of all, 'The Vanishing' is a very visual film. There are so many visual metaphors and symbolism that the perceptive and attentive viewer will notice. Saskia tells Rex in the initial part of the film about one of her nightmares and after knowing the ultimate denouement, that dream seems like a premonition. The central theme of the film is destiny. The film explores whether you can defy what is predestined or will destiny always have the last laugh. One of the best things about the film is that we already know who the kidnapper of Saskia is right from the get go. He is not a Hollywood bad guy. He is almost the antithesis of every Hollywood villain. He is just an average guy who has a loving family, but his mind and his logic work in the most deranged way. In a great sense, this film is more about the exploration and the study of this kidnapper than anything else. The director takes his time to follow this character and observe his actions and the processes he employs and his experiments and his rehearsals to get ready for the actual kidnapping. 'The Vanishing', I think involves one of the most deep character studies of a psychopath and the climax which is the ultimate revelation is one of the most chilling and horrifying climaxes ever.The screenplay which gets non-linear at times is brilliantly written and it beautifully complements the visual style of the direction and the cinematography. The film takes its time to build up the characters and story instead of truckloads of forced exposition. So much about the characters and story is revealed with subtle movements of the camera or a subtle facial gesture or a subtle word that gets spoken. It really has all the understated subtlety that you expect from a European art-house film. The Vanishing is a beautifully made film that has everything that you want from a thriller, but it delivers all of that in a very visually artistic way. Highly recommended.

AbhiMathews Spoorloos is an unusually horrifying film that doesn't dwell on sudden scares or supernatural underpinnings. It is about the romantic relationship two lovers share, and how anything can happen to any person at a whim. One of humans' greatest accomplishments is the drive to seek knowledge. Our curiosity has led to modern advancements, but it sometimes takes us too far. We call those whom do immeasurable good "saints" in our culture, but what about those whom complete both the greatest good and the greatest evil? The most unsettling factoid is that this person may be praised, well-known or even camouflaged within society. Defying normalcy, even in a world of billions, is not common. It's when we oppose traditions and order that we discover freedom. What happens afterwards, though, is inconceivable to the casual man. It's the unknown that we strive to know, yet it is also something we must fear.

lasttimeisaw My first George Sluizer's film, a bleak but tantalizing examination of psychological sociopath and the obsession of finding out the truth beneath. The plot-line is pretty straightforward, Rex (Bervoets) and Saskia (ted Steege) are a young Dutch couple on a vacation to France, en route, they stop in a busy gas station and Saskia is disappeared, three years later, the abductor Raymond Lemorne (Donnadieu) contacts Rex, the latter has been bedeviled by the incident ever since, Raymond asks Rex if he is willing to face the same treatment which Saskia had experienced so as to conclude his pathological obsession, his answer is astonishingly perverse and the finale is uncompromisingly gut-wrenching.The film starts with a foreboding tunnel accident, where Rex waywardly leaves Saskia alone in the pitch-black, there is a cryptic smile on his face when he is walking out of the tunnel to fetch gasoline, viewers may think - what is he thinking? what a complete jerk! Not to mention it is completely his fault for running out of gas in the first place! As one might expect Saskia will be mysteriously gone when he returns, it doesn't happen, but the scar is clearly lacerated, however they mend fences pretty soon, as Rex apologizes and explains that it is the moment when he leaves her there that he realizes how much he loves her. This perhaps justifies the smile, but it is deeply dark. They arrive the bustling gas station and Sluizer immediately introduces the perpetrator Raymond in parallel, but the narrative is still homing in on the lovebirds, after some casual flirting, a romantic ceremony to bury coins under one of the trees and a promise that she will never be abandoned by him, Saskia goes to the convince store and never comes back. After that, it is Rex's futile and desperate attempt to find her, until the morning after.Then, the film steers into Raymond's life, he is a chemistry teacher and has a perfect family, a gentle wife with two daughters admire him. But his dark side is innate, it is his passion to be a sociopath, his rehearsal of the abduction, detailedly recording his heart rates, it is utterly radical existentialism for him to implement his wrongdoings, he can be the hero to rescue a drowning girl, at the same time, he can ruthlessly murder a totally strange woman, there is no logical motivation, whatsoever, which is the most bone-chilling fact the film dares to divulge. Meanwhile, Rex is entrapped in the mystery, his persistence pushes his new girlfriend Lieneke (Eckhaus) away and his option between letting-go and embracing the worst outcome is the harbinger of his fate. When Raymond suddenly appears in front of him, apart from the initial rage, he is deadly under his clutches, up until the final decision, cogently enhanced by Henny Vrienten's thrilling score and the final blow is when finding the coins he and Saskia buried, he cannot run away from his oath, his suicidal act is simultaneously beyond credibility and thoroughly conceivable, it is the only way to follow his incubus to the hilt. The three leading performances are all awards-worthy, Donnadieu is formidably sinister and Bervoets singles out his desperation with awesome commitment, Johanna ter Steege, as the innocent victim, demonstrates how easily one can approach the doom by a whimsy of credulity. Arguably one of the darkest ending in the film history, THE VANISHING is the sort which one dare not to revisit since it leaves indelible imprint on one's memory with poignantly awe-and- shock side effect, it is also a cautionary tale to warn us never get into a stranger's car, no matter how innocuous or benevolent he or she looks.