The Vanishing (1988, Netherlands)
Original title: Spoorloos
mysterious disappearancemystery moviespsychological thrillerserial killer
Running time: 105 minutes
Language: Dutch / French
The Vanishing 1988 Dutch mystery film review
Rex and his girlfriend Saskia are taking a road trip during their vacations. After a trivial tiff, they make a stop at the busy service station, where Saskia suddenly disappears. Rex searches the whole place, asks the station staff for help, calls the police, but there is no sign of the woman. Despite the investigation providing no answers, Rex becomes obsessed with solving the mystery of what happened to his girlfriend. Three years later, even though he already has a new girlfriend, Rex is still hanging posters and makes appeals on TV hoping to find any sign of Saskia. Soon he receives information from someone, who claims he is Saskia’s abductor, and he can provide Rex with the answers he was looking for.
A tense movie showing how deep could be trauma after the disappearance of someone close - Rex becomes almost insane due to the uncertainty of what has happened and the helplessness that there is nothing more he can do. But the trip to find the truth will take him into the mind of a psychotic serial killer... and beyond.
The plot of the movie this rather simple, a woman disappears in a busy service station and from that point the viewer is sinking together with the main character in the void of being left without the answers anyone would hope to have answered, which makes it a very powerful film. The story proved strong enough to spawn an American remake, starring Jeff Bridges and Kiefer Sutherland, which (of course) had the ending slightly changed and lost a lot of its appeal.
Can you solve a mystery like this one?
Our rating |
7.2 / 10 |
Movie value |
8 / 10 |
Realism factor |
4 / 5 |
Adventure factor |
3 / 5 |
Story complexity |
3 / 5 |
114 |
Watch The Vanishing
Cast of The Vanishing
 |
as Rex Hofman | |
|
as Raymond Lemorne | |
|
as Saskia Wagter |
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