The Vanishing

As the climactic scenes approach, the audience must find a way through a number of large plot holes and suspend disbelief, but The Vanishing remains a strong, entertaining movie. [05 Feb 1993, p.3G]

Bridges is supremely creepy, while Sutherland is worse than grating, and, while this version doesn't hold up to its Dutch predecessor, it's impossible to deny The Vanishing's power. [05 Feb 1993, p.6]

Psychological thrillers are only as effective as their villains, and The Vanishing serves up one hell of a specimen. Read full review

A good, psychological thriller that, I suspect, packs more of a wallop if you have not seen the original. Read full review

The new film is twice as busy as its quiet predecessor, and perhaps half as interesting (which still places it several notches above run-of-the-mill studio fare). Read full review

[Sluizer's] original, pitch-black ending would have sent people out of the theater giddy with shock; it’s doubtful anyone will remember his new one long enough to tell their friends. Read full review

Some last-reel thrills and cathartic violence provide commercial oomph to the otherwise tedious thriller The Vanishing. This is one remake that sacrifices much of what made the original work so well. Read full review

While the original was a rather cerebral exercise in suspense, the American version has predictably been given a more visceral dimension. The new version is more simplistic, but still works on its own level. Read full review

Screenwriter Todd Graff makes an inept, quasi-formulaic rehash of everything. He duplicates many of the original scenes but does so mechanically. Read full review

The reconstituted Vanishing is a pretty banal proposition. [05 Feb 1993, p.27]

The Vanishing hooks you and doesn't let go for a good while, but it settles into formulaic, stalk-and-slash antics in its last 15 minutes. Which makes its failure hurt even more. [05 Feb 1993, p.G5]

The new Vanishing fails on its own terms -- it gradually adopts the conventions of a silly monster movie and loses the emotional impact of a psychological thriller in the process. But what makes this failed effort perplexing is the existence of the earlier film and its successful design. [05 Feb 1993, p.D4]

Even on its own merits this new Vanishing is a washout, a classic case of Hollywood studio compromise, in which almost everything that made the original effectively chilling has been tampered with and cheapened. [05 Feb 1993, p.03]

Too langorously European for slasher fans, and too dopey for others, Vanishing 2 may fall between the cracks. See it to savor Bridges playing a heavy. [05 Feb 1993, p.5D]

By removing the delicacy of the technique and the adept use of flashbacks, and by explaining the characters in the lexicon of Psych. 101, what was once an unconventional and unforgettably terrifying thriller has become a conventional, mildly scary melodrama. The Vanishing has gone up in Hollywood smoke. [08 Feb 1993]

A case study in how Hollywood can make a complete mess out of what was previously a marvelous film. Read full review

The Vanishing is a textbook exercise in the trashing of a nearly perfect film, conducted oddly enough under the auspices of the man who directed it. Read full review