The Vanishing [Spoorloos] (1988)

Do not confuse this with the American remake staring Keifer Sutherland and Jeff Bridges, an entertaining thriller that barely scratches the surface of the psychological depths going on in this Dutch original (which ironically are directed by the same guy, George Sluizer). A husband and his wife are on holiday, driving into France. They have an argument when the car runs out of gas.  They then arrive at a gas station where they makeup. Suddenly the wife disappears when she goes in for a drink. The audience knows who is responsible, a predatory man with a fake cast obviously interested in abducting someone. But the husband doesn’t know what happened to her and this will send him into an obsession that is impossible to settle. The villain in this story is wonderfully low key and frightening. This is a powerful horror film, and let me make this clear, while it could have been made as a thriller or even as a dark mystery, there is a sinister force at work here that is as evil as a slasher film. Grade: A-