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The Vanishing - Criterion Collection
Director: George Sluizer
Product Group: DVD
Studio: Criterion
ISBN: B00005NFZC
EAN: 9780780024571
UPC: 037429161623
DVD
Region Code: 1
Running Time: 106 minutes
Original Release Date: 1988-01-01
Theatrical Release Date: 1988
Release Date: 2001-09-18
Audience Rating: Unrated
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
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Editorial Reviews
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Amazon.com
When a young Dutchman discovers that his girlfriend has gone missing during their return to Holland from a bicycling trip in France, he begins a three-year search that forms the basis of this unsettling psychological thriller from 1988, originally titled Spoorloos. The missing woman's whereabouts remain a mystery, but the film provides an early introduction to her abductor, a seemingly normal family man whose domestic tranquility hides a meticulous, methodical madness. As the despondent husband advertises all over France and Holland for his missing wife, this game of cat-and-mouse escalates into a strategy of psychological horror, revealing certain facts and merely suggesting others to create an intense atmosphere of dread and anticipation. A film that Alfred Hitchcock would certainly have admired, The Vanishing leads to an unforgettable conclusion that's sure to send chills down your spine. Ironically, this film's director, George Sluizer, also made the inferior 1993 American remake starring Kiefer Sutherland and Jeff Bridges. --Jeff Shannon
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Description
A young man begins an obsessive search for his girlfriend after she mysteriously disappears during their sunny vacation getaway. His three-year investigation draws the attention of her abductor, a seemingly mild-mannered professor who, in truth, harbors a diabolically clinical and calculating mind. When the kidnapper contacts the man and promises to reveal his lover's fate, The Vanishing unfolds with intense precision, culminating in a genuinely chilling finale that has unnerved audiences around the world.
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Customer Reviews
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One of the most terrifying, unsettling films ever...
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-08-31
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is arguably one of the most haunting, terrifying, and chilling films ever made. It is generally classified as a horror film, but it goes far beyond being a simple horror film. There are no real scares, there is no gore, but a deep, unsettling vibe that leaves you uneasy for the rest of your life whenever you think of this film.
It concerns itself with a man named Rex who is on vacation with his girlfriend. They fight (at a European rest stop), they make up, she goes in to get some beverages, but never returns. Rex becomes obsessed with finding his lost girlfriend, and the obsession goes on for years. The man who is "responsible" for her disappearance sees Rex on a TV show, feels sorry for him, and decides to tell him who he is. Enough of the plot, the rest is yours.
This film still gives me the shivers, and yet it's not overtly scary. Perhaps because it finds its horror in every day life is why it's so unsettling. It's one of the best thrillers ever made, and it becomes more terrifying (and plausible) ever time you see it. The twists and turns of the plot are believable, and George Sluzier's direction is never flashy or draws attention to itself, enhancing the horror of the film. Simply one of the best horror/thrillers ever made.
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Without a Trace
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-08-23
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
"The Vanishing" is a classic horror film. A young man loses his girlfriend during vacation. For three years, he is obsessed with finding her. He posts her picture all over Europe, goes to the police... and can't find her. Then he meets up with a stranger,an amiable family man who's unnaturally obsessed with the young man's loss. Thus begins an eerie cat and mouse game. It's not the usual torture-and-gore flick we've become accustomed to. It's about the horrors of the human mind. The ending will scare you, chill your bones, and break your heart. "The Vanishing" does not disappear from your memory.
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Magnificient Obsession
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-06-29
7 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
In a perfect world, a viewer planning on seeing this film for the first time would not be aware of its by-now famous ending. It is a testament to everyone involved in the making of this movie, that knowing the ending does not spoil, in the least, that first viewing experience. Truly, this is one film in which the 100 minute buildup is as satisfying and quietly thrilling as the utterly horrifying ending, itself.
What a buildup it is. Alfred Hitchcock, who turned American Everyman James Stewart into a fascinating (and altogether believable) character study in obsession in Vertigo, his masterpiece, would have praised this film to the heavens. Like Vertigo, The Vanishing is a quiet, deliberate, slow moving affair, in which we first become gradually drawn into Rex's building guilt and torment over the whereabouts of his missing girlfriend, Saskia, who literally disappeared under his nose. During his 3 year quest to find her, we begin to learn more and more about the quiet professor who abducted Saskia. When the 2 men ultimately meet, Rex's first impulse is to kill the man who has turned his life upside down; but he can't, because he simply has to know exactly what this man did to Saskia - there's that "obsession" word again. Rex knows this man has killed his girlfriend, and, while fully aware he is sealing his own fate, as well, nonetheless agrees to the killer's terms at the film's conclusion: if you want to finally learn what happened to Saskia, the girl who vanished under your watch, you have to experience exactly what she did. And boy does he ever.
Although not all American remakes of European films are botched-up disasters (case in point: Insomnia, the fascinating Swedish suspense film, was made into a very credible character study/police procedural starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams), please avoid the American remake of The Vanishing at all costs. Can you imagine a remake of Vertigo, where Kim Novak, falling to her death from the bell tower at the film's conclusion, is saved at the last second by a fortuitously placed life net? Well, there in a nutshell is the ending of the American version of The Vanishing, and for the life of me, I can't believe the same director made both films.
Another praiseworthy release from Criterion, and very highly recommended.
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Amateur and dull - sick ending.
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-03-13
1 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
This film is not worth your time. The actors are mostly not very good, the plot meanders back and forth in order to give you clues here and there to what's going on.
But at its hearts it's an amateur production based on a truly horrible story.Disbelief has to be suspended throughout as the actions of the main characters defy all commonsense at times.The whole story could be told in one sentence - it's a sick story like cat torture . You don't need it do you?
In order to put the reviews in perspective you should know that one Amazon reviewer writes that this film is about a French couple going round Holland.
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Obsessed Beyond Reason
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-03-01
2 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
3 1/2 stars.
Funny how so many people can be describing the same film when one says "It's so boring and slow" and the other says "It's a brilliant suspense thriller".
One person says "This has the greatest horror movie ending ever", while a different person says "That ending stunk; I could think of four much better endings than that."
We are presented with a deceptively simple psychological horror story involving a young man's incredible determination to find out what happened to his missing girlfriend whom he last saw walking into a rest stop store for beverages. No trace of her after that. He never gives up his obsession to learn the truth. So determined is this man to end the mystery that he relinquishes control to the person who abducted the girl three years prior.
That is an obsession.
For years I had heard raves about how good this film is, and how incredibly chilling the ending is. That's a pity, because after seeing it I was first impressed but then disappointed. How can any film live up to being placed on such a lofty pedestal?
For me, the appeal here in "The Vanishing" lies in the portrayal of the villain, because he could be your neighbor or your coworker.. a family man and teacher who happens to enjoy abducting and/or killing people at random. That in itself is the scary part of The Vanishing.
This is an interesting and smart movie, slow and methodical in its building of dread and anticipation. Yes, it might be boring. We are so used to heavy doses of action, and a fast pace. "The Vanishing" is an acquired taste for many. Those who loathe subtitles should steer clear. I liked it to a certain extent because it was not a typical horror film. It seemed more like a documentary in some ways.
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Retail Price: $29.95
Amazon.com's Price:$14.00
That's 53% Off!
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