The Vanishing (Spoorloos) 1988 Film Review
Do certain people get a warning before fate finds us? Do we have any control in the outcome of our lives or is the cosmos really the master behind the curtain? This Dutch film ‘Vanished’ directed by George Sluizer provides a dark insight into these questions while also provoking our innermost fears. Set in France, this psychological thrillers follows a Dutch couple Rex and Saskia who are visiting the city on holiday. First breaking down on the side of the road while doing some touring, the film and director strategically build up the tension by providing us with a red heron in the first 10 minutes.
The film opens with Saskia while riding in the passenger seat recalls to Rex a recurring dream she has been having concerning herself and a golden egg that she is encased in while traveling through space. She goes onto explain that in the most recent dream however that while in the golden egg floating along the cosmos she comes across another golden egg which ends with both of them colliding into each other. Rex of course shrugs this off and then a few minutes later their car runs out of gas in the middle of the road.
With every encounter, every conversation and each subtle interaction that is conveyed in a scene, it all lends itself to the film as a whole and while the outline of the film might…
