REPACKAGING RAGE: THE VANISHING AND NIGHTWATCH It's the same movie, only completely different. It follows the same plot, except where it changes everything. - Desmond Howe, on The Vanishing(1) As for the work of Bornedal, I'd best reserve comment. ...Maybe he looked at the final cut and said, "Mik bortaagë dåntü ødån!" ("This is f...in' great!"). Maybe it's a great film in Denmark, but it's a terrible, terrible movie in America.- Shane Ham, on Nightwatch(2) Sometimes the devil is in the details.- Barney Cousins (Jeff Bridges) in The Vanishing In 1988, Spoorloos, a Dutch thriller directed by George Sluizer, premiered in the Netherlands to packed houses and rave reviews. Six years later, in 1994, Ole Bornedal's Danish thriller Nattevagten was released in its home country, also to critical and commercial acclaim. Besides evincing a clear Hitchcockian influence, both pictures were made on relatively low budgets,...
