Criterion Close-Up – Episode 53 – The Vanishing

Explicit content warning

10/26/16 • -1 min

Mark and Aaron cover the Dutch and French horror/suspense classic, The Vanishing. Having experienced this film numerous times before, we are able to explore the foreshadowing and narrative structure that led us on a wild journey to an even wilder ending. We talk about obsession, control, that harrowing ending, and yes, we even get into the American remake.

About the film:

A young man embarks on an obsessive search for the girlfriend who mysteriously disappeared while the couple were taking a sunny vacation trip, and his three-year investigation draws the attention of her abductor, a mild-mannered professor with a clinically diabolical mind. An unorthodox love story and a truly unsettling thriller, Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer’s The Vanishing unfolds with meticulous intensity, leading to an unforgettable finale that has unnerved audiences around the world.

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Episode Links & Notes

3:10 – October Horror Schedule

5:00 – Short Takes (The Tin Drum, Chevalier, Stop Making Sense, Tapeheads)

23:00 – The Vanishing

Episode Credits

Mark Hurne: Twitter | Letterboxd
Aaron West: Twitter | Blog | Letterboxd
Criterion Close-Up: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Next time on the podcast: House

About the film:

Buy The Films On Amazon:

Episode Links & Notes

3:10 – October Horror Schedule

5:00 – Short Takes (The Tin Drum, Chevalier, Stop Making Sense, Tapeheads)

23:00 – The Vanishing

Episode Credits

Mark Hurne: Twitter | Letterboxd
Aaron West: Twitter | Blog | Letterboxd
Criterion Close-Up: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Next time on the podcast: House

Previous Episode

Criterion Close-Up – Episode 52 – Carnival of Souls

Mark, Aaron and Eric Ford begin a month of horror with the micro-budget cult classic, Carnival of Souls. We talk about what makes this such an enduring classic that has held up over time, the bizarre story about how it was made, its influences and what it has influenced, and what type of artistic aims the filmmakers tried to reach.

About the film:

A young woman in a small Kansas town survives a drag race accident, then agrees to take a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City. En route, she is haunted by a bizarre apparition that compels her toward an abandoned lakeside pavilion. Made by industrial filmmakers on a small budget, the eerily effective B-movie classic Carnival of Souls was intended to have “the look of a Bergman and the feel of a Cocteau”—and, with its strikingly used locations and spooky organ score, it succeeds. Herk Harvey’s macabre masterpiece gained a cult following on late-night television and continues to inspire filmmakers today.

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Episode Links & Notes

Special Guest: Eric Ford from The Burlington Film Society and the Vermont International Film Festival.

1:10 – Welcome Eric Ford from Burlington Film Society, Vermont International Film Festival.

4:10 – Vermont International Film Festival

11:20 – Short Takes (Angst, The Neon Demon, Son of Saul, The Brood, Neon Bull, Anomalisa)

31:45 – Carnival of Souls

Episode Credits

Mark Hurne: Twitter | Letterboxd
Aaron West: Twitter | Blog | Letterboxd
Criterion Close-Up: Facebook | Twitter | Email
Music from Ben Model: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Next time on the podcast: The Vanishing

Next Episode

Criterion Close-Up – Episode 54 – Hausu Party

We let our hair down for Halloween and celebrate the oddity that is Ôbayashi’s House (1977). Dave and Jessica join Mark and Aaron. We agree that House is the most random and the most bonkers “horror” film in existence. Rather than break it down thematically, we celebrate its weirdness by pointing out the WTF moments and the occasions that make us laugh. Warning: this episode has a lot of profanity.

About the film:

How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes 5face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equally absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet. Never before available on home video in the United States, it’s one of the most exciting cult discoveries in years.

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