Mr. Sluizer, whose direction has the spooky precision of nonfiction crime writing and whose matter-of-factness makes the characters seem quite real, builds a disturbing horror story from seemingly modest beginnings.
The Vanishing
Who Has Seen This Woman?
1988 · 1h 46m · Not Rated
Mystery, Thriller
Directed by
George Sluizer
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The Vanishing
Overview
Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation when they stop at a busy service station. Saskia is abducted in broad daylight and three years pass with no answers or closure surrounding her disappearance. Rex has nearly given up all hope when he suddenly begins receiving letters from her abductor.
Director and cast
- George Sluizer Director
- Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu as Raymond Lemorne
- Gene Bervoets as Rex Hofman
- Johanna ter Steege as Saskia Wagter
- Gwen Eckhaus as Lieneke
- Pierre Forget as Farmer Laurent
- Bernadette Le Saché as Simone Lemorne
- Tania Latarjet as Denise Lemorne
- Lucille Glenn as Gabrielle Lemorne
- Roger Souza as Manager
- Caroline Appéré as Cashier
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
A brilliantly crafted intellectual thriller with a spring like a trap. It carries you down with it.
Director George Sluizer unfolds his story with non-hysterical -- but nonetheless unnerving -- precision. Vanishing is refreshingly free of manipulative scenes involving running bath water, jagged-edge cutlery and bunnies in the saucepan.
The movie advances in a tantalizing fashion, supplying information obliquely, suggesting as much as it tells, and everything leads up to a climax that is as horrifying as it is probably inevitable.
Sluizer's direction is seamless throughout, effortlessly juggling domesticity and damnation as it ploughs inexorably towards an appaling denouement.
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