Missing – Film Review

When her mother disappears while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend, June’s search for answers is hindered by international red tape. Stuck thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, June creatively uses all the latest technology at her fingertips to try and find her before it’s too late. However, as she digs ever deeper, her digital sleuthing soon raises more questions than answers.

The concept of movies told entirely through a computer or phone screen isn’t new, as we’ve been graced with films such as Unfriended and Host, but the best of the bunch easily has to be Aneesh Chaganty‘s Searching, which told the story of a father who must do everything he can to search for clues as to the whereabouts of his missing daughter. The film was so incredible to the point where I was terrified when they announced that a standalone sequel would be released in the form of Missing.

But now having seen this new film, I can wholeheartedly say that not only is this yet another excellently tense thriller, but it’s also heaps and bounds better than the already fantastic Searching. Nick Johnson and Will Merrick‘s film is essentially a glorious exercise of suspense and tension from the moment it begins all the way to the moment it ends. There’s rarely a time in Missing where we feel like we can breathe.

Even when some of the plot points start to come together, Johnson and Merrick find clever and disturbingly realistic ways to complicate things even further, adding even more fuel to the horrifying fire. This is one of the most hauntingly grounded and plausible thrillers I’ve ever seen. Every single plot point seems like something that could legitimately happen in our real world, whether we like to admit it or not. Missing genuinely feels like a documentary at times, and that’s scary.

A lot of the reason why this movie works as well as it does is because of Storm Reid‘s captivating lead performance as June Allen, who tries to do everything in her power to find her missing mother Grace. But seeing as how she’s just a teenager in high school, she’s not exactly sure where to start. Watching this young girl attempt to put these puzzle pieces together is riveting. You’ll find yourself rooting for June the whole time.

If you’re on the lookout for an incredibly engrossing thriller that’ll leave you feeling totally breathless by the time the end credits roll, then you don’t need to look any further than Nick Johnson and Will Merrick’s Missing. It’s an insanely smart, inventive movie that will constantly keep you guessing at every single turn. This movie has plot twists so wonderful that I just know M. Night Shyamalan would watch this whole movie with a smile on his face, wishing he thought of these ideas sooner.

Inventive, captivating, and scarily plausible, Missing is an excellent exercise in pure tension, written and directed masterfully by Nick Johnson and Will Merrick and featuring a strong lead performance from Storm Reid.