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nitrateglow · 1 month ago

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Spooky Season 2024: 37-38

The Vanishing (dir. George Sluzier, 1988)

During a road trip through the French countryside, a young woman named Saskia inexplicably disappears at a gas station. Last spotted getting into a stranger's car, she is never seen again. For three years, her boyfriend Rex-- who had accompanied her on the trip-- is torn with grief and obsession, the uncertainty of Saskia's fate ruining his life. However, he is contacted by a person who claims to have been the man last seen with Saskia. He offers Rex a chance to find out just what happened that day, though the offer may be deadly.

I'm just going to be upfront: a movie hasn't disappointed me so much in a long time. The Vanishing is a beloved piece of work, often hyped to hell and back as the most chilling movie of all time. Stanley Kubrick allegedly thought it was the scariest film he'd ever seen. As a result-- and this is embarrassing to admit-- I was lowkey nervous about watching The Vanishing. I literally put off watching it for years.

Well, I finally saw it and... it's fine. A decent psychological film, but nothing I would deem a classic. I wasn't chilled and the ending-- which so many people describe as a sucker-punch-- well... I did not have the same reaction. The payoff didn't seem worth what struck me as a very tedious film.

I love me a good slow-burn, but this film's story didn't grip me like I thought it would. You're told who the kidnapper is from the start and the movie is more about learning WHAT happened than WHO dunnit. It's about the main character finding closure after this terrible thing happened to a loved one. He isn't even interested in getting justice, only getting knowledge. I love that idea and think it's a unique angle on this kind of thriller, but the execution was just lackluster. The characters are presented in a cold, emotionally detached way, and I didn't really feel much suspense, especially once the protagonist and antagonist started engaging in lengthy philosophical discussion. It's all very remote emotionally-- that's likely the director's intention but it just didn't work for me.

That being said, it's not like I hated this movie, because it does a lot well. The sociopathic kidnapper is especially interesting. He's presented as an unassuming family man and not an obvious creep, making his malevolence more chilling and believable. The creepiest thing in the movie for me was not the shock ending, but the scenes of the villain figuring out how to lure women into his car so he could sedate them with chloroform. The matter of fact presentation worked well there. (Also, his weird facial hair is terrifying enough on his own.)

Now, it could be I just hyped The Vanishing too much in my head. I was expecting something like Don't Look Now, a slowburn chiller about grief with a horrifying ending that stayed with me for days. That movie brims with passion though and this one is much icier. Now, that clearly works for most people. It just didn't click with me.

Pearl (dir. Ti West, 2022)

It's 1918 and Pearl lives a life of lonely tedium on a Texas farm with her German immigrant parents. Her mother is a harsh, cold taskmaster. Her father is paralyzed and borderline vegetative. Her husband is off to war. The farm animals are dying off and poverty lurks constantly. The one thing keeping her going is her dream of movie stardom. However, when this dream proves tougher to achieve than realized and her home life deteriorates even more, Pearl's sociopathy pushes her over the edge.

Tonally and visually, Pearl could not be more different from The Vanishing. The Vanishing is no frills and detached, while Pearl sports a Douglas Sirk color palette and boils its lead character's emotions to a fever pitch by the finale. Writing-wise, I was disappointed by both, largely due to pacing. The middle sections in both movies drag a bit.

However, I had a better time with Pearl and that goes down to Mia Goth in the title role. She is ASTONISHING, one of the best villain-protagonists I have ever seen. Her loneliness and desire to escape her bad home life make her understandable and even sympathetic to a degree, but she is still a dangerous character, unable to empathize with other people. At turns, she broke my heart and scared the shit out of me.

An important thing to note is that this is a prequel to an earlier film by the same director, X. I have not seen that movie and know basically nothing about it, other than it's a pastiche of '70s exploitation horror. That being said, I still thoroughly enjoyed Pearl and didn't feel I was missing any key information. It's a stylish, slowburn thriller and though the middle sags a bit, I would still highly recommend it.

#the vanishing #pearl #thoughts #spooky season 2024

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jimsmovieworld · 1 year ago

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THE VANISHING- 1988 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Rex is on holiday with his girlfriend Saskia.

They stop at a gas station and Saskia suddenly disappears without a trace.

Three years later, shes still missing and Rex is now a shell of his former self. Hes obsessed with finding Saskia and has sunk all his money into posters and tv appearances to try and track her down. He makes an appeal on tv to her kidnapper or killer to please contact him. He doesnt seek revenge, he just needs to know what happened.

Days later, he is stopped in the street by her killer who offers him the truth about what happened to Saskia, but only if he goes with him now and agrees to experience what she experienced....

Excellent dutch thriller. Absorbing, tragic and ridiculously creepy. Loved the way the story went back and forth between the years. Strong acting and direction. What a horrible ending, poor Rex.

Directed by George Sluzier who remade the film in english in 1993.

#the vanishing #movie #film #movie review #thriller #scary movie #foreign film #80s movies

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