George Sluizer's 1988 film Spoorloos (The Vanishing) is the story of a murder and the search for the killer, but it's not a whodunit for the audience at any rate. Just after Saskia (Johanna ter Steege) disappears at a French rest stop while vacationing with her boyfriend Rex (Gene Bervoets), the audience sees the long chronicle of local chemistry teacher Raymond Lemorne (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) preparing to carry out a murder of some random woman. As the film rises towards a climax, we follow Rex's obsessive hunt not for justice and retribution, but for simple understanding of what happened to his love. It is that unquenchable curiosity to know the very details, to indirectly share Saskia's fate that drives Rex forward on a dark quest. Spoorloos is widely known for its twist ending, and I'd recommend avoiding spoilers before you watch the film. I myself was spoiled, but still, Rex's doom was played very different than I imagined.

Rex is something of a one-dimensional figure who exists purely to carry out the philosophical conundrum that is the plot. Lemorne is the truly detailed character, even if I find some of his motivations hard to swallow. Donnadieu plays him convincingly – I really came to despise this character. It is interesting that his initial attempts to abduct a victim, though played buffoonishly to a rather comic soundtrack, don't lighten the mood (as in, say, the black comedy of Edward Gorey), but rather make us squirm even more.

Though the twist ending makes this film memorable, and Donnadieu and, to a lesser extent (for she has little screen time) Steege's acting is fine, I wouldn't rank Spoorloos so highly. The cinematography is plain, and there's little re-watch value. Still, this is worth seeing once.