REVIEW: Missing (2023)

Storm Reid in MISSING — PHOTO: SONY PICTURES.

Directed by Will Merrick and Nick Johnson — Screenplay by Will Merrick and Nick Johnson.

The filmmaking medium is constantly in a state of development and reinvention with artists seeking to find new ways to tell audiovisual stories. The found-footage genre was a huge trend that still pops up every now and again nowadays, and the latest found-footage-esque trend is the screenlife, or screencast, genre where the entire story is told by showing computer screens, smartphone screens, or the like. The Unfriended films are solid horror examples of this (as is Rob Savage’s Host, a terrific COVID-set horror film about Zoom video calls), and Aneesh Chaganty’s Searching starring John Cho is probably the best film of its kind. Searching followed a scared father searching for his missing daughter. The editors of Searching Nick Johnson and Will Merrick have ‘graduated’ and now serve as directors of its ‘standalone sequel’ titled Missing. On the whole, Missing is a really solid feature directorial debut, but it also feels really familiar and isn’t quite as good as the film it is following up on. 

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REVIEW: Host (2020)

Release Poster – Shudder

Directed by Rob Savage — Screenplay by Gemma Hurley, Rob Savage, and Jed Shepherd.

Whether we would like it to happen or not, I am sure that over the next many years we will be treated to several films about, or simply set during, the Coronavirus Pandemic. It will be interesting to see what films treat that period of time appropriately and if any films about said period can stand the test of time. However, today I want to talk about the first fictional film that I have ever seen that directly mentions the Coronavirus pandemic, which is the Rob Savage-helmed techno-horror film Host. Continue reading “REVIEW: Host (2020)”