Rating: 
Summary: Horrifying film that still gives me nightmares....
Review: Perhaps I would have been better off if I had never seen this film. I don't usually watch horror films. I was scared out of my wits by "Psycho" when it came out in theater's (it's hard for younger people who grew up with Freddie Kruger to imagine it, but there was a time when you didn't see blood all over the screen.) This film does't show any blood and I don't remember much violence, however, it's a psychologically terrifying movie like "Diabolique" so if you have a weak heart don't watch it. "The Vanishing" has a fine cast and was shot somewhere in the Netherlands--I believe the cast is Dutch. Johanna ter Steage(?), the fine actress who played Theo's wife in "Vincent" and Frau Beethoven in "Immortal Beloved" plays a young woman who becomes the victim of a mentally unhinged stalker. The man's derangement is demonstated by his lifelong willingness to "experience" things like deliberately falling off a balcony so he can see what it feels like to break an arm. Johanna's boyfriend cannot overcome the loss of his girlfriend. Her memory ruins opportunities to form a realationship with a new person. The crime drives the boyfriend to acquire the attributes of the man who 'stole' his girlfriend. First he becomes obsessed about establishing a link with a particular person, just as the stalker became obsessed about finding a woman he could kidnap. Second he stalks the kidnapper in a variety of ways, just as the kidnapper used a variety of ways to lure a woman into his car. Third, he says he is willing to 'experience' what the kidnapper demands so that he can discover what happened to his girlfriend. In the end, I was left "unhinged."
Rating:
Summary: Excellent foreign psychological thriller
Review: WARNING!!! Be VERY CAREFUL when reading other reviews here - some of your fellow Amazonians have given away an important plot twist that will diminish your enjoyment viewing this film. I will not do that here.
This excellent psychological thriller is about two men. One of them is obsessed over the disappearance of his girlfriend at a gas station when they were on a road trip together. Was she kidnapped? Murdered? Or did she just leave him? He has to know at any cost. Years pass, he gets a new girlfriend, and obviously no longer loves the one that disappeared, but his obsession has only grown over time. He hangs "missing" posters around town and goes on TV begging to know what happened to the missing woman.
The other man is a mild-mannered husband and father, the kind of guy that might live next door to your house in the suburbs. After doing something very good as a young man, he develops an obsession of his own - he wants to see if he is also capable of doing something equally evil.
The stories of these two men intersect, and, in a way, each holds the key to the other's obsession.
Watching this film is not effortless - it has subtitles and lots of flashbacks. One thing that helps is that whenever the film focuses on the time around the woman's disappearance, someone has a radio on and is listening to coverage of the Tour de France (a 21-day bike race, for those of you unfamiliar with Lance Armstrong).
In the buildup to the climax, all questions are gradually answered and the movie leaves us with everything resolved in a very cool way.
The movie has some great literary devices. Early in the film, a creepy incident in a tunnel sets the tone and becomes a metaphor for something important later in the film.
One very cool thing about this film is how terrifying it is, without resorting to gimmicks, special effects, gore, or foreboding violin music. The director really pulls off a minor miracle. And you think you know who the bad guy is early in the film, and you may be right, yet the suspense is still quite compelling.
The same director was hired by Hollywood and paid a lot of money to create a sanitized remake. Avoid it. This version is the real deal.
Rating:
Summary: A great suspense thriller!
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
The Vanishing is based on a novel called called "The Golden Egg" by Tim Krabbé. The film titled "Spoorloos" in the Netherlands is probably one of the best suspense films ever to come out of the Netherlands. The popularity was high enough for there to be an American remake of the film released in 1993 starring Jeff Bridges.
Having not seen the remake, it is hard to compare, but I plan to watch (and possible review) the remake upon its DVD release next month.
The film is about a young French couple on a vacation in Holland. When at a gas station, the girl disapears and the man goes searching for her. He learns from eyewitnesses that she was driven off by another man. Convinced that she was abducted, he relentlessy starts searching for her and the kidnapper. Three years later, he recieves a letter from the kidnapper offering to tell him what he did to her.
The suspense of the film is excellent and has great elements later imitated in other films. Notably, "Breakdown" and "Ransom."
The DVD only has a theatrical trailer for a special feature but it still is a great film to watch.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Let It Vanish From Your DVD Library!
Review: Bravo to the filmmakers for this international psychological thriller! I found this film to be one of the best suspense pictures I have ever seen.
The film takes place in France as a Dutch couple is about to embark on a vacation together. After stopping at a highway rest stop their lives change forever and with an eerie foreboding that lingers throughout the entire film. The couple is played by Gene Bervoets and Johanna ter Steege with convincing roles as innocent lovers who never suspect danger lurking in their paths.
Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu is brilliant as the sociopath mathematician who stalks women at rest stops throughout the film. He is the perfect villain, an unsuspecting and happy family man who commutes between his city home and country home all the while plotting with numbers and calculations to capture gullible women and commit some mysterious act on them. Donnadieu is creepy and scary without doing anything obvious to portray himself that way. The uneasiness that surrounds him is comparable to some of the best American suspense films involving psychopaths. He decides from an early age to go against the odds and jump from buildings just because the probability factor is so remote that he would ever do so. This act then extends into adulthood and begins his current quest. The filmmakers never reveal exactly what Donnadieu is attempting but you will be glued to this film so that you can find out.
The ending of this film is phenomenal.....one of the best ever! It will send shivers up and down your spine. For suspense lovers this is a must own DVD for the French scenery, the creepy evil that lurks in its corners and the ever present sense of dread.
Rating:
Summary: A bit of a warning...
Review: I you haven't seen this movie yet, and plan on seeing it, skip the review entitled "A Horror Film In Every Sense Of The Word". This reviewer gives away the ending, which may ruin a really good movie for ya.
Rating:
Summary: Freaking brilliant, Thinking Man's Thriller
Review: First off, shame on the previous reviewers who gave away the ending. Yeah, if you've seen the blasphemously bad remake w/ Kiefer Sutherland (by the same director no less!), you know the ending. Nonetheless, this movie is more than the tension. The characters are strong (particularly the villain), many of the visuals are strikingly visceral, and this nicely contrasts w/ the philosophical storyline. The villain is one of the most original villains in Film. He is an intellectual creature, not driven by anger or childhood trauma or emotional prejudice...rather cold, hard logic. His premises may be unsound, but you can at least you can understand the method to his madness. They simply don't make movies, yet alone thrillers, like this anymore. Taking Lives? Your average Ashley Judd film? Puke. This is the type of movie for people who like Seven, Memento, Requiem for a Dream, Identity...not for the sunshine pumpers, I assure you. But fiction *should* test our boundaries and make us uncomfortable... Don't see the remake. The remake trashes all the poetry and poignancy of the original.
Rating:
Summary: Do you know what *fear* is?
Review: I've watched this movie several times, and I must admit I was shocked to see that some people find the film boring. If you do in fact pay any attention to the film you can delve deeply into the disturbed minds of both Raymond, Rex, and even Saskia. Raymond is obsessed with his own need to beat predestination, and the result is a complete lack of conscience on his part. People who lack a conscience are some of the most dangerous people alive. Rex himself is a warning. He became so obsessed with Saskia that he compelled himself to repeat her experience unto death. And that's just on the surface. This movie puts the "psychological" in psychological thriller, instead of just being a mystery to solve. Also, I was horrified to find that most people were not disturbed by the fact that Rex and Saskia were buried alive. You even see Rex wake up in his own coffin. Doesn't anyone realize how horrible that would be? That is a slow and agonizing death. No one can hear you scream, you can't get out, eventually you'll run out of air. If you find being buried alive boring I suggest you try it. It's an incredibly diabolical thing to do someone. There you lie, with the dirt pressing in all around you, doomed. And the fact that Raymond just didn't seem to care was also terrible. And he could get away with it. Anyone can go around shooting people or slashing around with a knife, but how many people can manage to bury two people alive. And there isn't a shred of suspicion attached to him. True he didn't torture Rex or rape Saskia, and if it's violence you're looking for you won't find it here. You also won't find this to be a whodunit story. But if you're looking for a *real* psychological thriller, this is it.
Rating: 
Summary: Scary? Not! Chilling? Not! Interesting? Maybe
Review: I have to agree with the reviewer who was totally shocked at the descriptions of this film by other reviewers. After reading reviews that described the film as SHOCKING! CHILLING! NIGHTMARISH! I decided to finally purchase this dvd after hesitating for a few months. I'm sorry - but I was highly disappointed. I consider myself a horror fan of sorts and I'm not normally into the blood and gore type of films, prefering "psychological thrillers" instead. This film was neither. Do yourself a favor before purchasing this movie and RENT IT FIRST!!!
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