Missing

2018 saw the release of Searching, an acclaimed entry in a strangely underused subgenre. The film took the relatively rote story of a widowed father investigating the disappearance of his daughter - with the central structuring gimmick of telling the story entirely through the screen interface of a MacBook. FaceTime calls, message conversations, even news streams and security footage could be meshed together into a propulsive thriller, which took its cues from previous sleeper horror hit Unfriended: perhaps it was the allure of group-watches on the laptop of a comparable teenage audience which seemed like such a perfect fit for white-knuckle genre fare.

Anyhow, it is five years since and the follow-up is upon us. Missing is not exactly a sequel, but comes from the same creative team and utilises a similar premise to Searching. Switching the generations this time, it is a teenage daughter (Storm Reid, from Euphoria) using her 21st-century smarts on the trail of her mother (Nia Long), who has disappeared on a trip with her boyfriend. The services and technology have been duly updated to keep up with the times, so there’s no time like the present to catch this one…