Excellent adaptation.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The acting in this movie is really good.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Despite an interesting premise, The Vanishing fails to really accomplish anything. Its scope is too narrow and ending ridiculously stupid. People are saying this film is disturbing, but I don't see how. While the concept is dark, I wouldn't say that it is at all visually hard to watch or mentally scarring in any way. In fact it is quite light in terms of anything we see, Saskia being tricked and chloroformed is really the only thing. Not to mention that Raymond is actually extremely jovial. Raymond and Saskia were fine characters, but Rex was terrible. Why didn't he get gasoline? What was that about? Then after looking for Raymond for so long, he chooses to slap him with his arms and lets him walk away? The hell? Then instead of killing, torturing or taking him to the police, he lets him drug him.Saskia: My nightmare. I had it again last night. Rex: That you're inside a golden egg and you can't get out, and you float all alone through space forever. Saskia: Yes, the loneliness is unbearable. Saskia: No. This time there was another golden egg flying through space. And if we were to collide, it'd all be over.

A Dutch couple, Rex Hofman (Gene Bervoets) and Saskia Wagter (Johanna ter Steege), are on vacation, driving through France. They pull over at a busy service station where Saskia goes to the shop for drinks, but she never returns, having been abducted by calculating chemistry teacher Raymond Lemorne (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu). Three years pass and Rex is still obsessed with finding out what happened to Saskia, so when Raymond contacts him, he agrees to anything in order to learn the truth.I'd read that the ending to The Vanishing was a real shocker, but to be honest, I saw it coming a mile off and it had very little impact on me other than to make me think how stupid Rex must be to agree to the villain's terms. The rest of the film is a leisurely study of two characters, and is reasonably entertaining, but far from the gripping, creepy and disturbing tale that many claim it to be. Perhaps I've just seen too many really messed-up movies in my time, but I won't be losing any sleep over this one.

Compelling film that still resonates with me decades later. Even re-watching it whilst knowing the story does not spoil the experience.It is more compelling than enjoyable - so you need to be in the mood to be challenged. It leaves you with a reinforced impetus to enjoy the minutes that you are given, whilst looking out for loved ones. Every one fits their roles and the sum makes a greater film than the original parts.Total Film reviewed it in their 'Classics' section in the issue July 2016.The Hollywood remake is laughable - it just shows the difference between challenging original and the comforting remake.

Spoorloos is an unusually horrifying film that doesn't dwell on sudden scares or supernatural underpinnings. It is about the romantic relationship two lovers share, and how anything can happen to any person at a whim. One of humans' greatest accomplishments is the drive to seek knowledge. Our curiosity has led to modern advancements, but it sometimes takes us too far. We call those whom do immeasurable good "saints" in our culture, but what about those whom complete both the greatest good and the greatest evil? The most unsettling factoid is that this person may be praised, well-known or even camouflaged within society. Defying normalcy, even in a world of billions, is not common. It's when we oppose traditions and order that we discover freedom. What happens afterwards, though, is inconceivable to the casual man. It's the unknown that we strive to know, yet it is also something we must fear.