The vanishing

Year of release : 1993

Run time : 1h50m

Genre : Psychological Thriller

Cast : Kiefer Sutherland, Jeff Daniels, Nancy Travis, Sandra Bullock

The movie is a remake of the 1988 French-Dutch movie directed by the same director, George Sluizer, based on the 1984 novel "The golden egg" written by Dutch writer Tim Krabbe.

Chemistry teacher Barney Cousins is renovating the family cabin in a beautiful place, by a lake,while his family think he is having an affair. He is not having an affair, he is plotting to kidnap women, and thinks of how to approach them, to make them get in his car; he clocks how much time it takes for them to fall unconscious after he covered their mouth and nose with chloroform, and scares his daughter to see if the neighbors can hear the screams.

Jeff is on vacation with his girlfriend Diane, and they have a fight, as he didn't listen to her to stop at a gas station, so their car stops in a tunnel. He goes to buy gasoline, and then they stop at a gas station, to pump more gas, while Diane goes inside, to buy something and use the ladies' room. She takes his keys so he won't leave without her.

Jeff waits for her for hours, and when he sees she doesn't return, he starts looking for her.

3 years later, he still puts posts up about her missing. He appears on tv shows, talking about her, asking whoever knows anything about her to come forward.

 

One late evening, at a diner, he meets Rita, who seeing he is exhausted, is offering him a bed in the back of the diner. They end up dating, and moving in together. This doesn't stop him from still looking for Diane.

 

Barney liked Jeff's persistence in looking for Diane. He likes it so much he starts stalking him. He almost kidnaps Rita,when he hears her saying they broke up, and leaves her be, approaching Jeff.

He tells Jeff he can show him what he did to Diane, if he is willing to go through what he put her through. At first Jeff refuses, but he was always consumed by not knowing what happened to her, if she's alive or dead, and agrees to drink his drugged coffee.

And wakes up buried alive.

 

Rita and her friend are getting drunk as she left Jeff, and calling him, she notices the message she left on the answering machine was changed, which makes her think something is wrong. She goes to his place and calls the police, and seeing they can't do anything for at least 24 hours, she decides to take matters in her own hands.

I personally enjoyed the movie, as I found it original, different from all the movies of its genre that I watched.

Jeff was a character who was loved deeply by two women. Diane loved him too, and now Rita, proves that she would do anything for him.

The leading lady is strong, cares for her man, and fights for him, in more ways than one.

Jeff is a man who loved Diane very much, who is consumed by not knowing what happened to her.

Barney is just evil, to bury people alive, to pretend he wants to tell Jeff the truth, when in reality he just wants to k1ll him (probably afraid one day he'll discover him). He is so methodical, he even puts chloroform inside the phone, in case the victim wants to call the police!

I liked the opposition between Rita who offers a ride to Barney's daughter, and drops her off where she wanted to go, proving to be good, and Jeff, who systematically tries to lure women into his car so he can k1ll them.

The acting was good, I particularly liked Nancy Travis, I thought she was the best, and Kiefer Sutherland, who's always a win.

The movie received negative reviews, the critics complaining about the happy ending which in the original didn't exist.

The movie grossed a little over 14.5 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 20 million, being a box office bomb.

You can watch the full movie for free, if you follow this link :

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9h60ww

Rating : Worth a watch !