---
title: "The Vanishing: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-vanishing/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/the-vanishing"
critics_score: 82
critics_reviews: 8
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Vanishing (1988): what the critics said

Critics' score 82 from 8 reviews: 6 positive, 2 mixed, 0 negative.

Most critics rate George Sluizer’s Dutch thriller highly, and the praise clusters in the same places. Reviewers call it chilling, hypnotic and disturbing, and several single out the way Sluizer stages the ordinary details of a holiday stop so that a kidnapping seems both plausible and inevitable. Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu’s performance as the abductor is repeatedly noted. The ending is the other point of agreement: critics describe it as devastating and unforgettable without, mostly, giving it away. Those who compare it with the American remake prefer the original for keeping its nerve.

The spread is narrow. Six of the eight reviews are firmly positive, and no critic dislikes the film. Of the two mixed verdicts, Slant Magazine gives it three stars while still calling it unsettling and praising the staging, so the reservation is one of degree rather than kind. The consensus is that the film’s bleakness is its strength, and almost nobody argues otherwise.

## Empire — Ian Nathan

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. 

Nathan finds the Dutch thriller gripping, disturbing, and more rewarding than its American adaptation. He praises its eerie atmosphere and devastating ending.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/vanishing-review/)

## Los Angeles Times — MICHAEL WILMINGTON

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 October 1990. 

Wilmington finds the film a potent, haunting thriller that builds an everyday nightmare into metaphysical horror. He especially praises its near-documentary realism and Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu’s chilling performance.

[Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-10-10-ca-1761-story.html)

## The AV Club — Mike D'Angelo

Rating A-. 29 October 2014. 

The critic praises the film as a brilliantly unsettling thriller that makes uncertainty more frightening than the killer. He singles out the ending as unforgettable and disturbing, contrasting its bleakness with the remake’s misplaced catharsis.

[Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/the-vanishing-is-the-original-gone-girl-with-the-truth-1798181863)

## Time Out — MK

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 

The critic presents the film as an exceptionally chilling psychodrama. The review singles out how it turns a slender plot into an exploration of human potential.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-vanishing)

## The New York Times

Fi1m's normalised score 64/100 (inferred from the text). 25 January 1991. 

The URL identifies this as a review of the 1988 film, but the page content is unavailable. The critic’s verdict and any specific praise or complaint cannot be verified.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/25/movies/review-film-how-evil-can-one-person-be.html)

## Slant Magazine — Chuck Bowen

Rating 3/5. 28 October 2014. 

Bowen finds the film an unforgettably unsettling meditation on chance, obsession, and the absence of catharsis. He praises Sluizer’s precise staging of the ordinary details that make Saskia’s kidnapping possible.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/the-vanishing/)

## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 11 November 2006. 

The critic finds the film deeply disturbing and hypnotic, with an ending that leaves a powerful impact. They single out Sluizer’s manipulation of the audience’s imagination and the chilling atmosphere of controlled unease.

[Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-vanishing-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray)

## The Ringer — Adam Nayman

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 5 September 2018. 

Nayman presents the original as a brilliant, enduringly terrifying thriller whose bleakness is central to its power. He especially praises the hypnotic drive-and-confession sequence and the climax’s sense of inevitability.

[Read the review](https://www.theringer.com/2018/09/05/movies/the-vanishing-streaming-movie-influence)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/the-vanishing.md