User Reviews

This movie gave me nightmares for...well, I'm still having them. Rex and Saskia are a young couple on vacation. They stop at a gas station, Saskia goes inside and never returns. Rex becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her and, when at last faced with the man who abducted Saskia, finally has the chance to find out. But there's one condition: Rex must surrender himself to Saskia's abductor and agree to experience the same thing she herself went through. The only trouble is, he has no idea what that might be, or even whether Saskia is alive or dead. Rex believes that the Not Knowing is the worst thing, but it isn't. The Knowing is the most horrible thing of all.

This is a powerful film that practically punches you in the stomach with its gritty realism. The performances are flawless and haunting, and the climax and aftermath, delivered with a quiet matter-of-factness, are the very definition of horror. This is real horror, the kind we try not to think about but which can happen, and has. If this film doesn't disturb you, I can't think of anything that will. Highly recommended, but only for people who are emotionally equipped to deal with the fear and the terror that the camera never flinches from. People with claustrophobia would be wise to stay far away from this film.

George Sluizer recently remade this, his own original Dutch version, in America with Kiefer Sutherland and Jeff Bridges. A more audience pleasing, action type film, it was quite an entertaining work.

The original is set in France as we find two young Dutch people, Rex Holfman and his 'friend' Saskia, on the way to a little hideaway in rural France. Their pleasant little getaway takes a cruel turn when Saskia disappears at a highway road stop. After a desperate three year search, Rex is confronted by Raymond, a man who claims to be the abductor.

The storyline is a lot more realistic than the re-make, with Sluizer simply using the two main characters to involve his audience, by first allowing us to obsess along with Rex about the whereabouts of his lost love, and secondly by slowly introducing us to the disturbed Frenchman Raymond.

Lead players Gene Bervoets, Johanna ter Steege and support are very good as is Sluizer's thoughtful direction, while the plot unfolds itself at a well judged pace. And the ending, which is quite different to the more recent film, is a much more suitable, believable and disturbing one. This superior 1988 Dutch movie is well worth your while.

Sunday, January 23, 1994 - Video

***This review includes spoilers***

This dark, brilliant film has been much-talked about since its release in 1988, and for good reason: only a few films have such immutable power, leaving you with mental images that stay with you for months or even years. This film's austere ending is a commentary on the prevalence of heartless evil in our society. Reduced to its simplest expression, there is no joy in nature. Make no mistake, this is an ugly film that you will only want to see once. I cannot imagine anyone finding the same degree of stark satisfaction from the sanitized 1993 American version, complete with a happy ending tacked on to appease nervous producers. Please don't see the 1993 version.

Rex and Saskia are two young lovers on holiday, alternately loving and fighting as close couples are wont to do. Their flaws are revealed, making them more endearing: during the drive he becomes macho and demanding, while she rebels and becomes petty and shrill. After the fight, they are closer than ever. One cares about these characters, can imagine their lives together for years to come, possibly even getting married. She's earthy and fun-loving, while he is quietly appreciative of her company. Oddly, she presages the forthcoming events by recounting a strange dream about a golden egg. These two seem a perfect match. The sun sets on their short romance when they stop at a rest area and she disappears. He hangs around the rest area for hours, long into the night looking for her and trying to reconstruct her footsteps through the rest area. The sense of desperation and mystery lingers, and it shows in his pained expression. Anyone who has ever lost a loved one can identify with his quiet, desperate longing.

Several years later, Rex is still obsessed with Saskia's disappearance. His romantic partner, realizing that she can never take Saskia's place, walks out on him. Rex appears on talk shows, canvasses neighborhoods with flyers, and revisits their favorite places in an attempt to understand just why Saskia disappeared. This part is important: Rex wants to understand the nature of evil, and in order to successfully get through this film without lying awake all night with the ending forever running in your head, it's important to acknowledge this aspect of his character.

The film cuts to Raymond, the man who kidnaped Saskia: you might have imagined a raving maniac, but instead you see a gentle, kindly older teacher with a wife and son, living in a well-appointed flat and driving a Citroen; he might just as well be Pere Noel on summer holiday. This film is constructed like a crime scene investigation. First we experience the disappearance firsthand, and then we go into the mind and life of Raymond, showing how he coldly planned and carried out the kidnapping with as much emotion as changing the oil in his car. It is this two-part process which slowly builds the powerful suspense in this film. We see how methodical he is in his approach to the planned kidnaping, and, impossibly, we even laugh at him: looking for a victim, he inadvertently makes a pass at a young woman he knows, and she calls him on it, saying that he should be ashamed of himself. It is this twist of fate that drives him to kidnap a young woman from the rest area, where no one is likely to know him. So the fates have brought him Saskia.

Aware of Rex's obsession, Raymond offers to meet him in a public place and show him what happened to Saskia. Suffice it to say that the mystery of Saskia's disappearance is frighteningly revealed at last; listen closely and you can almost hear God laughing in the soundtrack. Because of the strong ending, I would recommend seeing this film with at least one other person.

There is nothing beautiful about this film; it is cold, ugly, and unfair. At the very least, maybe it will help you to understand the unreasonable nature of evil.

*** Spoilers ***

I saw this movie on DVD a few days ago, and I'm feeling confused, especially when I read so many good IMDb reviews about it.

I won't bother everyone talking about the permanent cheesy synthesizer's music, so fashionable during the eighties… as well as I won't complain about the bad pieces of dialog and acting, except for Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, who passed away a few months ago - rest in peace Bernard-Pierre. Those are flaws you can see on many small –or even big- budget movies.

No, actually I had a problem with buying the whole thing, even if I happen to believe I'm some kind of a good viewer - a movie can take me wherever it wants to; it's very easy to hypnotize me.

But I couldn't buy the idea of a lonely dude haunting almost every day the same highway gas station, looking for opportunities to abduct women (we know he goes there every day for his wife asks him about the significant number of kilometers rising daily on the car counter) without being noticed or pushed out.

I couldn't buy this absurd abduction sequence where a silly young woman jumps into Donnadieu's car, and gets neutralized by chloroform….in front of everybody.

I couldn't buy Donnadieu's tedious and vague explanations about his own behavior (something like: are you a true hero, if you prove you're able to do evil… Or something like that, I didn't really get it, and where does that come from anyway? Some 19th century psychiatric garbage?)

And to top it all, I couldn't buy the idea of a main character drinking a cup of drugged coffee *while being aware of it being drugged* because he wants to "know about everything and feel everything" concerning his girlfriend abduction, cup of coffee offered by the man who planned and operated the abduction! Come on man, go and find the cops! You've gathered enough information at this time for them to re-open the case and start to dig stuff up on Donnadieu's backyard!

And there's a couple more I'm too lazy to write about, but you got my drift, I guess.

To work as a good movie, I think a thriller has to follow up its own mechanic and logic, a bit like a swiss clock… Even if it tells a crazy or insane story, it will work just as long as it sticks to its inner rules.

No logic and coherence in this one, I'm afraid.

Spoorloos, a Dutch/French thriller lives up to it's genre. It is first and foremost a psychological thriller in which the audience pretty much understands what's happening, but has to go through the agony of the Rex Hoffman character who, as Raymond the antagonist puts, never had the chance to fall out of love. (spoiler) This is of course the vanishing of his vivacious girlfriend. The filmmakers craft the antagonist better than the other characters - a self-described sociopath who tries to give us in words what motivates his despicable actions. He is a family man but obviously is beyond the pale. The music affords a haunting 80s odd feel. And the lead several actors all perform well, especially Raymond. Additionally there's some interesting philosophical banter associated with destiny - if you reverse a choice after going with your original hunch, are you altering reality somehow? A solid outing for the genre worth a look - a little bit aged though.