It starts with the disappearance of a 22 year old student, Riley (Chantel Little), that's pretty much inexplicable since neither her parents (Maissa Houri, Mark Templin) nor her best friend Mackenzie (Willow Mcgregor) have the slightest idea where or why she could have gone, and she took nothing with her, no change of clothes, not even her cellphone or shoes. The parents and Mackenzie soon launch a wide-spread search, both physical and over social media, but to no avail. But they do attract the attention of documentarian Carter (Eleanora Poutilova), who tries to shed light into the darkness - until suddenly the parents are gone. Mackenzie soon withdraws from the documentary and moves in with her sister April (Gabrielle Banville) - and suddenly she disappears as well, and all April can provide Carter (or anyone else) with is clues remarkably similar to (and as inconclusive as) those from Riley's disappearance. Thing is, more and more people do disappear in and around Riley's hometown, and without proper explanations panic grows ...

Now frankly, found footage flicks and mockumentaries have become a horror staple over the last 20+ years, and even more frankly, not all are very good, and way too many follow the same rigid formula that makes even the slasher formula seem flexible in comparison - but none of this applies to We Are the Missing, a film that really uses the main found footage concept to really build its own world of horror, by asking questions, by implying, by really using a cinematic approach - not so much in terms of camerawork (where the film rarely ever veers beyond talking head shots, but by clever editing, good use of sound bites and even a score (a bit of a rarity with found footage movies), as well as quite simply clever writing that manages to pervert its basic premise about a couple looking for their girl into a widespread nightmare one might not awaken from.

A fun watch for sure - but don't expect to sleep to soundly for a day or two afterwards ...

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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