The Vanishing **** (1988, Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna ter Steege) – Classic Movie Review 8991

Director George Sluizer’s terrifying 1988 Dutch mystery horror psycho thriller The Vanishing [Spoorloos], based on Tim Krabbé’s novel The Golden Egg with a screenplay by the author, is highly disturbing, even uniquely disturbing, but with no blood or violence.

Gene Bervoets stars as Rex, a Dutch holidaymaker whose girlfriend Saskia (Johanna ter Steege) vanishes from a busy French service station, and he desperately searches for the truth about her disappearance, while we watch the bourgeois abductor Raymond Lemorne (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) work out his plans for the seemingly motiveless abduction.

The scary suspense builds inexorably as the two men are drawn into a confrontation where a desperate need to know the truth becomes more important than safety. Donnadieu is superb as the chillingly creepy, almost-comic villain with a heart of ice, while director Sluizer shows a Hitchcockian skill for suspense in this low-budget but top-rank thriller that leads to a shocking finale.

George Sluizer remade it in America as The Vanishing in 1993.

Also in the cast are Gwen Eckhaus, Bernadette Le Saché, Tania Latarjet and Lucille Glenn.

The Vanishing [Spoorloos] is directed by George Sluizer runs 106 minutes, is made by Golden Egg Film, Argos Films, Co-Productiefonds Binnenlandse Omroep, Ingrid Productions, MGS Film and Movie Visions, is released by Meteor Film (1988) (Netherlands), Metro (UK) and Tara (1990) (US), is written by Tim Krabbé, based on Tim Krabbé’s novel The Golden Egg, is shot by Toni Kuhn, is produced by Anne Lordo and George Sluizer, is scored by Henry Vrienten, and is designed by Santiago Isidro Pin and Cor Spijk.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8991

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