Popular reviews

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  Review by DirkH ★★★★★ 21

  When I was fifteen my teacher who taught Dutch made us read Tim Krabbé's 'Het Gouden Ei'. After reading it and discussing it in class we watched Spoorloos, based on said novel. I remember being a bit bored by the novel and thought the film was ok.

  Many moons later I re-read the book and recognized it for the sucker punch that it is. (if you loved this film I urge you to read the novel, there are many excellent translations out there and it is well worth the read). A while back I hit a bit of a lull in my movie watching. Wanting to pick it up again I decided to rewatch this. Now, memory is a funny…

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  Review by josh lewis ★★★★ 1

  if you’re looking for something light, breezy and fun boy have i got a recommendation for you.

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  Review by josh lewis ★★★★ 3

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  schrödinger's wife.

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  Review by PTAbro ★★★★ 14

  With an ingenious plot structure and a black heart that seems to revel in breaking the audience's own, The Vanishing is a bleak thriller that might not have the technical bravado of Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now, but feels very similar in effect. A devastating loss, a study of grief and obsession, and an ending that is simply cruel, but feels just right. Adapted from Tim Krabbé's novella, The Golden Egg, it's a great example of the benefit of keeping the author on to co-write the screenplay. The pacing and structure work together to keep the plot barreling ahead (something other psych-thrillers occasionally stumble on by concerning too much runtime to developing the mood explicitly instead of letting the story…

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  Review by Nick ★★★★½ 7

  The Vanishing is one of the most detailed and terrifying murder mysteries I've seen. Told from two intertwining perspectives regarding the disappearance of a female tourist in France, it feels like two hemispheres that fit perfectly together, thus leaving no air for the audience to breathe. The heavy suspense and a sinister atmosphere are prominent throughout, relived by occasional scenes of effective hilarity. The cat-and-mouse game builds organically for an ending where all shocking secrets are revealed. What's most impressive about this movie are the outstanding performances, especially from Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, whose deceivingly harmless charisma contrasts greatly with the evil things he's capable of doing. Director George Sluizer's decision to elaborate on the perpetrator's personal life actually pays off, enabling…

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  Review by Todd Gaines ★★★½ 4

  Dutch brilliance. What one man is willing to do to uncover the truth of a missing loved one. What one man did that will send shivers up your spine. Thrilling. Edgy. Creepy. No Hollywood ending, but pure satisfaction after viewing.

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  Review by ben mcdonald ★★★★ 2

  If not for its stupid fucking 80s score, this would be a pretty perfect thriller.

  Also makes for some pretty damning social commentary on our sick fascination with psychopaths and killers. Rex could almost be a direct stand-in for our obsessive need to know every last detail of how a crime transpired.

  It’s quite depressing how little that message has aged in the era of mass media and mass shootings.

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  Review by Nakul ★★★★½ 2

  Starting my Halloween Movie Marathon with this masterpiece! That ending, one of the most chilling scenes ever put on film.

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  Review by Richard Chandler ★★★★★ 18

  "I hope you'll eventually learn something."

  Having already filmed one adaption of a Tim Krabbé novel (Red Desert Penitentiary), the Parisian-born Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer served as an informal advisor regarding the French elements of Krabbé's latest novel The Golden Egg, concerning a woman's mystifying disappearance and its yearslong psychological repercussions on her distraught partner. Sluizer quickly developed an interest in the story and purchased the film rights, after which he consented to Krabbé's request to adapt his own novel for the screen. When Sluizer found the initial draft undistinguished ("not bad, but not good") the two began collaborating on the screenplay, but unnavigable creative differences ultimately led Sluizer to dismiss Krabbé and complete the adaptation alone.

  The Vanishing (Spoorloos) is…

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  Review by Scott Anderson ★★★★★ 7

  She looks beautiful in the sunlight. It's the type of moment that you take for granted because you assume the world owes you thousands more just like it. You never believe it could be the last until it is, and even then you probably won't believe it. You refuse to believe it. You look at her there, basking in the glow of a world so seemingly perfect and on face value it's just another day. She looks beautiful in the sunlight, and it will shine tomorrow and the next day and the day after that.

  Only the sun suddenly stops shining. The world seems so dark. You look for her there, anywhere, everywhere but you see nothing. It was just…

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  Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★

  Far superior to the American remake.
  A masterpiece in suspense.
  One of the most depressing and unforgettable stories in it's genre.

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  Review by cuckoochanel ★★★★½ 9

  SHOCKtober Day 24 of 31 

  George Sluizer’s 1988 Dutch mystery thriller, The Vanishing, unspools a tangled narrative of obsession born out of insatiable curiosity. A claustrophobic French chemist with no perceivable conscience conducts an elaborate experiment to test his daughter’s theory that he is a “hero”. In doing so, he alters the lives of a Dutch couple vacationing in France—when Rex’s girlfriend goes missing at a busy gas station, he invests countless funds in a yearslong public campaign to learn what befell her.

  Gene Bervoets plays Rex Hofman, the tortured bereaved who blindly launches an indefatigable search for answers about the disappearance of his partner, Saskia (Johanna ter Steege in a memorably endearing debut). His foil and his remedy are…