Of all of George Sluizer’s films, I have only seen two of them. Spoorloos, with the really scary ending involving a guy and a cigarette lighter in a tight spot, and its American shovel-in-Jeff-Bridges’-skull remake, The Vanishing, the only film in which Nancy Travis got top billing over Sandra Bullock.

I’ve read that Sluizer says that he saw Ariel Sharon shoot children, then eat their raw brains. I’m not sure if I read that right, or which part of that may or may not be true.

I also know that Sluizer directed River Phoenix in his last film, Dark Blood, which was left in mason jars in Sluizer’s backyard for nineteen years until he could figure out how to monetize it.

During an interview about digging up the film for screening, Sluizer said that he was dying, and I homed in on that instead of the rest of the article.

Points are important, so thank you for dying, and Mr. Sluizer, I hope you do not need that cigarette lighter.

--Chaptal