Our next Halloween Horrors contributor is something of a “last minute” surprise. They were never “announced” on any of our socials. In fact, he only joined on a few days before the series began. My oldest son, Bishop Fallon, mentioned that he wanted to write a review for the series on a film he had recently watched. As he’s never shown any desire to do so prior, I was elated to have him join. 

Now, I’ll be honest. I’ve not watched Missing, the film Bishop chose to write about. I had not even heard of it until the night that he started watching it on his phone. The film does appear to be targeted towards younger audiences, which probably explains why my 13-year old son knew of this film and I didn’t. Then again, I’m a grumpy old troll living under a bridge, so plenty of newer films slip my radar.

Obviously, I’m thrilled to have my son be a part of this Halloween tradition, but I also appreciate that his choice of topic broadens the range of films being covered this year. It may also provide some insight into not only films made for a modern demographic, but what appeals to these younger viewers. Who knows? This may be a film that is still being discussed during Halloween Horrors 2048. If so, hopefully Bishop will be the one writing these intros. By then, I’ll probably be too senile to write them myself. 

 

Missing (2023) 

Before I start talking about this movie, let me tell you who I am and why I am writing this review. I wanted to write a review because I needed to give this movie some recognition. Unless my name is in the title (which it should be), my name is Bishop Fallon, one of the sons of Horror and Sons. This is my first ever review of a movie, and hopefully I can get one more review next year. Oh, and this is mandatory, but Happy Halloween to whoever is reading this. If you do not support Halloween, then just have a happy October 31st, I guess. (You can never go wrong with carving pumpkins though. But hey, I do not have the power to force you to do things.) 

First off, let us talk about where I found this movie. I had been looking for movies and TV shows to binge since I wanted to explore types of content that piqued my interest. Netflix gave me Missing as a recommendation. Missing is like the movie Unfriended (2014), but trendy. If you have not heard of or watched the movie, I cannot blame you, since this movie goes under the radar on Netflix.

In the beginning of the movie, an old video of a six-year-old June Allen plays on the screen. June is having some fun with her father, James, who you find out 5 minutes later unfortunately died of a brain tumor, based on the computer files containing articles among articles of information on brain tumors and treatment. Fast forward 12 years later, June is all grown up, and her mother, Grace, is taking a vacation to Colombia with her boyfriend, Kevin, which leaves now 18-year-old June the man (or woman) of the house. 

June travels to LAX to pick up her mom and Kevin, but she is confused as to why they have not arrived. She tries to investigate herself with online tools, which leads to hiring a Colombian gig worker by the name of Javier.  

Later in the movie, June can access Kevin’s password after a handful of attempts, noticing that he has blocked lots of women and scammed them out of money. June starts to believe that Kevin kidnapped her mother, which makes June pay Javier to find clues anywhere. Kevin at one point was in a Christian rehabilitation center for ex-convicts in Nevada. Jimmy, the pastor at the center, tells June that Kevin is a changed man and genuinely loves Grace. June enters Kevin’s dating site profile, where hundreds of video messages show that Grace has known for a while that Kevin was at one point an ex-convict. 

Elijah Park, who is an FBI agent helping June find Grace, receives footage of criminals throwing Kevin and Grace into a van. June goes to the office of her mother’s lawyer friend, Heather, to get the truth, but her computers are completely wiped. Going into the storage closet, Heather is brutally murdered and stuffed in the closet. 

June just seems to give up. She is tired of everything. June listens to her mom’s older voice messages. She just misses the feeling of hearing “Junebug” just one more time.. Wait… Junebug! June cracks her mom’s password, and she sees one blocked user from just jumbled mess. One singular email comes from it, and it is very threatening.

I would tell the ending, but it is a particularly good movie that I think should get more love and recognition. This movie is filled with lots of twists and turns, and it really keeps you on the edge of your seat. It is worth watching. Also, this is technically a sequel to Searching, a movie that follows the same idea as Missing. 

It is not a “Halloween” movie per say, but it is still a creepy, suspenseful movie. “Mysterious” would describe this film best. I just enjoy this movie because it is different from other horror movies and does not bore you to death. It gets right to the point and doesn’t make up an entire backstory, other than the fact that her dad “died” and that’s pretty much it. That’s the thing with horror movies… maybe it’s just me and the generation I’m in where we get impatient, but movies with a long backstory before the good stuff happens is the reason why I don’t watch a lot of shows and movies. Don’t get me wrong. I love horror, but sometimes I just want to get straight to the climax and not watch half an hour to an hour of introduction and backstory.