Well done. It is a thriller and a horror film in many ways but it mostly affected me as a meditation on obsession and our fear of/attraction to the unknown. I had seen the remake of this film years ago. The original is much better I think.

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.

This is an intriguing movie from Europe, and maybe because it's European, a multitude of inexplicable plot turns is excused. All credit to the director for maintaining the tension as Rex seeks to find out what happened to his missing wife Saskia who mysteriously went missing at a roadside stop. Much praise has been lavished on The Vanishing for its "banality of evil" and I found the ending rather inexplicable. Really, why would Rex volunteer himself to certain death at the hands of the kidnapper to find out what happened to his wife? Couldn't he have called the police to provide coverage? He had enough evidence to pin the crime on Raymond. But I guess this weird ending was deemed politically incorrect and edgy and European as well, so definitely praiseworthy I guess.I know the US remake (which was also directed by George Sluizer, who directed this one) drew much ire for its happy and politically correct ending. You can't satisfy everyone I guess.

Rex and Saskia are driving on a holiday. They have a fight and make up. At a gas station, Saskia disappears. Rex relentlessly searches for her. Raymond is outwardly a normal family man. In secret, he's been methodically preparing to satisfy his evil desires. He had kidnapped Saskia. Three years later, Rex is still looking for Saskia and has new girlfriend Lieneke. Evenutally Lieneke leaves him. He gets an offer from Raymond to reveal the truth of what happened.This is a cold-hearted character. The situation is intensely harrowing. It's not really a mystery because the killer is revealed quite early on. What it does is it shakes the viewer to the core. Raymond is unrelenting. We see this through Rex's eyes and it's a runaway train. The tragedy unrolls and the audience is helpless in its face.