Jamie Skinner reviews 'Missing': When her mum (Nia Long) doesn’t return from a holiday with her new boyfriend (Ken Leung) 18-year-old June (Storm Reid) uncovers various truths about their disappearance and online lives.

Cert - 15, Run-time - 1 hour 51 minutes, Directors - Nicholas D. Johnson, Will Merrick

Perhaps the key to Missing’s engagement is that the display feels genuine. From a montage of parties (cue Snapchat and Instagram updates) as 18-year-old June (Storm Reid) celebrates having the house to herself to sticky notes spread all over the desktop. You believe this is an 18-year-old’s computer screen filling with increasingly frantic details.

When the fad of screen-based films first spawned it was largely used by horror films such as Unfriended. 2018’s Searching took the format and used it for tension-building in John Cho’s search for his missing daughter. However, soon the ‘gimmick’ seemed to disappear (although still used to effect in Rob Savage’s terrifying Zoom-based horror Host).

Now, Missing arrives as a sort-of-sequel to Searching. Following June (Storm Reid) as she tries to find out why her mum (Nia Long) and her recent boyfriend (Ken Leung) haven’t returned from their brief trip to Colombia. Along the way she uncovers various truths about the pair through their personal online profiles. The concern that every major twist and turn had been given away in the trailer gradually fading as it’s proved that there’s plenty left for the whole film to reveal.

The effective drawing out of details and revelations is met with open-mouthed shock (and some glee at how the rug has been pulled). There’s plenty to not see coming within the layered mystery, with the screen-based format being effectively used to heighten the tension. Much of which is pushed by Reid’s excellent central performance; leading the film with a strong turn which captures her character’s fear, panic and disbelief at every turn.

For much of the run-time the pacing is fast, allowing for there to always be something to be interested in throughout the search. Which makes the third act all the more disappointing. Things almost halt to wave in predictability in an overdone tonal and stylistic shift. The closing stages (final few minutes aside) stand aside from everything else in a state of false darkness via overplayed and confused melodrama. It’s a late-stage fumble for what could otherwise be a thoroughly excellent thriller.

Certainly, everything that comes beforehand still holds up and there is a tense and surprising set of events for much of Missing’s run-time. It’s just a shame that the film appears to become something very different at such a key point. Yet, as mentioned, there’s still plenty to like. Especially in regards to the tension which is helped along by Storm Reid’s central performance and the layout of the screen/s she looks at so often throughout the film. Even down to the various searches which crop up and how things pan out, it feels believable and you fully buy into it again as a format early into the film.

Jamie Skinner, Four stars ****