Night of the Missing

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So I'll start with the one nice thing I can say, the cinematography was actually really well done. Ok, now that the one nice thing is out of the way, let's talk about what these other reviews don't. The writing, awful in most parts, but specifically bad during all of the "sheriff" scenes. By the description, we're supposed to believe that all of these stories are the sheriff's crimes. Using that as a baseline, then this sheriff is a supernatural entity a 'la Pennywise, who can become a clown with Mr Fantastic stretchy powers, shrink people and force them to live in a miniature town, force people to relive working as a 900 number sex worker in 1989, and I guess turn into two drug dealers, kill a guy's girlfriend, then get killed by a ghost, and... You know what, no... Just no. So, next I look at what these other reviews said, and ok, yes, it's an "anthology" style film, but literally none of the stories have any sort of connective tissue. Missing persons seems like it's the intended theme, but then you have a final story that ends with a person wearing a GPS enabled, court ordered tether, shooting themselves in the head in their own house. Please explain to me how that person is "missing". Disjointed and poorly written, the actors truly did their best (for the most part), the only reason I was able to sit through this one was the fact that it was EXTREMELY short. Oh yeah, and I have to mention the final scene involving dismemberment, we get a gorgeous opening shot with a dissonant version of O Holy Night, and a good look at the Sheriff's department, prominently, and permanently displaying the words "Police Department #84". Sheriffs don't work at police departments.

After arriving at a deserted police station, a distraught woman catches the eye of a small-town sheriff with her tales of the subjects behind the wall of missing person posters. Generally, this is a pretty serviceable and enjoyable short-burst anthology effort although its format does present it with some issues. The general quality of the setup and the way the shorts play out isn't bad, with the rushed introduction to the strange woman wandering into the station and the condition she's in sets this up quite nicely for that kind of burgeoning mystery to get unraveled by the time the main stories proper start. This sets up the rather likable and somewhat chilling, with the first two especially being quite worthwhile as the young kid who disappears stopping at a questionable ice cream truck, and the second featuring a young girl who answers a phone-sex call from a serial killer. These both offer a lot of shocks, practical effects, and a generally fun time packed into a short running time. While there's nothing overtly wrong with the other two segments, one about the residents of a seemingly-perfect town with a dark secret for how that came to be and a man determined to be with his true love regardless of the circumstances, don't have much physically wrong with them but it's more the fact that they're so short they leave a ton of questions at the end of them. The third segment doesn't have any time to answer practically any of the endless questions that arise at the end of it, from how the town works to what the purpose is beyond numerous others, while the last one is tantalizingly obscure about its target given the framework for the anthology clashing with the resolution offered. This here really could've used more time to make its setup work or just let the world in play breathe since the segments are so short, but it's not that big of an issue here. Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

"Night of the Missing" is a fairly typical anthology film -- it's a collection of random short films grouped together with a loose attempt at a common theme. The movie begins with the discovery of a weird woman in a police station. The sheriff comes in and starts yelling at the woman (identified only as "The Woman"). The Woman says she wants to report a missing person, but instead of doing so, she instead looks at "Missing" photos hanging on the wall and tells the story of four of them, which lead to the short films. The first one is a super-short film from 2020 called "We All Scream." It's about a boy who wants some ice cream. Short but pretty creepy. The second film is a short from 2022 called "Nite Flirt" starring the beautiful Gigi Gustin (who gets a "Story" credit on it). This one is a little unusual -- Tammy (Gustin) goes about her business while weird, supernatural things happen. Then she is suddenly doing some sort of sex-talk phone service. Then that's dropped and we're back to supernatural stuff to finish off the short. Confusing as all heck, but Gustin is very appealing in her role (and definitely a force to be reckoned with in future films), and the short is satisfyingly weird and creepy. Confusing is also a good word for the third short, 2020's "Miniature." "Miniature" stars Jenna Kanell (of "Terrifier" fame) along with Gustin again. They are really tiny and in a "Model Town" (think the model town in the attic of "Beetlejuice"). An intriguing little short, although no real connection to the overall theme of "Missing people." The "Missing Person" theme is completely abandoned in "You Promised," the final (and weakest, not counting the wrap-around) of the stories. This drug-deal-gone-wrong story that morphs into the supernatural doesn't seem to fit in at all with the others. We end up completing the Sherriff/Woman story, although to be honest, I really had no idea what was going on with those two. The whole wraparound story definitely left something to be desired and is the least effective part of the film. I like short horror films, so I did sort of enjoy "Night of the Missing." Three of the shorts were good, and that's a pretty strong success rate in these type of movies. Check it out if you're a fan of these type of films.

source: Night of the Missing