This Dutch film tells the story of a woman who disappears from a cafe and her lover who searches for her for the next three years. This is a slow film without any action to speak of. I never got impatient with it because I was interested to see whether the man finds out what happened to the woman. He does. In what has to be one of the most shocking endings I've ever seen, "The Vanishing" reveals what it's known for: a dark, merciless conclusion.

I read that this was supposedly one of the scariest movies of all time. It's not scary, so much as just creepy and chilling. What's remarkable about it is that it goes well beyond most movies in the thriller or horror genre in exploring themes of existential dread and fate. The antagonist bucks fate once by jumping off a building as a youth. He reasons that it's predestined that he - won't - jump off the building, so off he goes. Likewise, [spoiler] it's predestined that people like him, a family man with two daughters, which is significant - won't - kidnap people and send them to their dusty doom, so, in his warped reasoning, kidnap them, he must[/spoiler]. As a portrait of the inner workings of a madman and sociopath, it's a fascinating movie, and from a directing standpoint, it apparently inspired countless movies that came after it.

The original title of the film is Spoorloos.

One of the best movies on my personal list! It took a moment for me to process what this movie was about because it was pretty confusing. I love the way it connects the dots, the actors are great (especially the villian), the ending is unpredictable and this movie keeps making me to come back (I've watched this movie sixth times).

This movie is just creepy and intense with a great and shocking final reveal. (While the original is in Dutch and French, a rare combination of languages, I did get it completely by just speaking French. I am sure there is an English version out there.) Anyway, the movie is just excellent in showing first completely innocent and meaningless private couple scenes ... until the girlfriend just disappears. Then they show the private life of another man who gradually starts to show weird behaviour. In the final third of the movie, the two men meet and gradually lead to the unexpected climax. Excellent storytelling and a creepy bad guy who can be just so normal. (PS: There is an American remake out there with Kieffer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock that is Ok too, but this one is just better, as it is more natural and thus feels more real.)