Storm Reid has to turn into a detective to track down her mother after she fails to return from a holiday in Colombia.
The mystery thriller Searching, a story told entirely through phone and computer screens, was a huge success in 2018.
So, it was no surprise when a standalone sequel was announced the following year.
Missing, the next instalment in the anthology, tells a completely new story with a fresh set of characters, however, the use of computer and phone screens as the visual storytelling device remains the same.
This film stars June (Storm Reid), who is thrilled when her mum Grace (Nia Long) goes on holiday with her boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung) in Colombia and leaves her at home alone for several days.
However, when Grace and Kevin fail to return to Los Angeles and she can’t get hold of them, June starts to panic. What happened to her mum? She has to turn into a detective to figure out the mystery.
This story is full of shocking twists and turns and is seriously unpredictable. You will never see the ending coming because there are so many red herrings along the way to throw us off the scent.
It’s remarkable how directors Will Merrick and Nick Johnson managed to make such a thrilling and gripping story through June talking to people on FaceTime, looking at footage from her Ring door camera, searching through emails, dating apps and Google Maps histories. She has to use a lot of apps and websites to search for clues and solve the mystery and it’s clever how they add to the plot.
The concept is immediately intriguing but the narrative gets increasingly tense and crazy as the game-changing reveals come in.
You think you know where it’s going but then another clue comes in and changes it all again. It’s entertaining trying to connect the dots and put all the information together before June does.
Admittedly, it becomes a little melodramatic and silly at the very end, but that can be forgiven after being solid for the majority of the runtime.
Reid is in almost every scene and she often has to act alone, with only a screen or a phone call for company.
Just like John Cho in Searching, she does a terrific job holding it all together and making the drama on the screens come to life in the film.
She has great support from Megan Suri as June’s best friend Veena, Amy Landecker as her neighbour Heather and Joaquim de Almeida as her man on the ground in Colombia.
Missing is a creative, innovative whodunnit that’ll keep you guessing throughout.
In cinemas from Friday 21st April.
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