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Spoorloos (1988): A Moody, Heady Dutch Horror Classic

Spoorloos means 'Traceless' in English. It was a Dutch-French production and released in 1988. It's a bilingual film and falls under the horror subgenre, Psychological Horror. If you have seen Nolan's Memento where Ghajini drew the inspiration from, you will know what a non-linear structure of storytelling means. You would get to know the climax first in such films and then the film would explain to you how that climax was reached. Spoorloos follows a young couple who decides to roam the countryside. Somewhere down the line, the girl gets secluded from the boy and is kidnapped by a self-confessed Good man and 'sociopath'. Simple, isn't it? Well, not so simple. The boy goes on an endless and painful search of the girl. For 3 years, he doesn't find a clue. He gets the nationwide coverage from print and electronic media both in Holland and France and urge the kidnapper to meet him. He decides to forgive the kidnapper only if he lets him know what he did to his girlfriend. What follows next is unbearable to watch. For that matter, the whole film is an exercise in 'futility' you would assume. It's setting is unsettling, pace just good enough to have you on roll and acting top class. Stanley Kubrick, the maker of my and millions of others' favorite horror film of all time, The Shining, called it's director for discussing the editing on his next project and called Spoorloos the 'scariest' film he had ever seen. Now if you have watched and known Kubrick, you would know what a great honour it was Spoorloos. It's riveting and a must-watch experience.

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