Night of the Missing – Movie Review (2/5)

NIGHT OF THE MISSING on SCREAMBOX is a horror anthology that centers on a strange woman talking to the town sheriff. This is essentially both the wrap-around segment and the core of the story. Read our full Night of the Missing movie review here!

NIGHT OF THE MISSING is a new SCREAMBOX addition that starts out really well but ends on a less impressive note. For me, anyway. It’s a horror anthology, so obviously that means different segments that will hit differently.

Personally, I really enjoyed the two first. Maybe that’s why I was disappointed when it evolved in a way I didn’t enjoy as much. It’s always better to end on a high note, after all. In any case, it isn’t exactly long with a runtime of 1 hour and 13 minutes, so you should check it out when you get the chance.

Continue reading our Night of the Missing movie review below. Find it on SCREAMBOX from November 28, 2023.

More Gigi Gustin and Jenna Kanell, please!

Not only is Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators) in my favorite segment of Night of the Missing, but she is also one of the writers on the anthology and a co-producer. She has the perfect style and vibe for her story in this horror anthology. Actually, she tends to just be really good whenever she appears on the screen.

Sure, she’s easy on the eyes and takes roles where she’s the stereotypical blonde, but what wins me over is that she plays characters with a twist. In Night of the Missing, she’s in the segment “Nite Flirt” and is alone on the screen for almost the entire segment.

She interacts with a TV screen, someone on the phone (voiced by horror icon Bill Mosely), and one character in the house. This was the segment that drew me in and made me feel like this anthology was really working for me.

Admittedly, the first segment titled “We All Scream”, which is fairly short, did work well too.

Also, I really enjoyed the “Miniature” segment which worked remarkably well and had a great style. Jenna Kanell (Renfield) starred in that segment and was brilliant! Gigi Gustin is also in a small role in that segment at the beginning.

In fact, the “Miniature” and “Nite Flirt” segments were both really solid shorts that lean towards a 4 out of 5 rating.

So what went wrong?!

The wrap-around lost me

The core of this horror anthology (as with most anthologies) is the wrap-around segment. For Night of the Missing, this is where it all begins and ends. At first, I was okay with it, but the ending just looses me completely.

What was the point of it all and why wasn’t this setting utilized better?! Whether more dramatic or fun, I don’t really care, because it was so lackluster that I felt disconnected from it.

We’re at a police station during Christmas and a woman shows up wanting to talk to the sheriff. As they talk, it’s mostly the strange woman looking at the extreme amount of “Missing Person”-posters and telling the story of each one.

So far, so good.

But then the focus ends up being on the two of them, and these characters are very shallow. We never really get to know them or get any form of attachment, because the focus has been on the various missing person cases. For a story that is both the wrap-around and the core of it all, it just did nothing for me.

Well, except made me wonder why more wasn’t made of it. And that was just irritating.

Watch Night of the Missing on SCREAMBOX

The directors of this anthology are Samuel Gonzalez Jr. and Matthew Hersh, while the writers are Samuel Gonzalez Jr. and Gigi Gustin. While the wrap-around was my least favorite part of the anthology, the segment “You Promised” was the other weak point of this collection.

Not as bad as the wrap-around, but just not as good as “Miniature” or “Nite Flirt”. The fact that this anthology had both “You Promised” and then the whole core/wrap-around segment afterward just made for a weak third act. This is what made me feel like it wasn’t that good overall.

The truth is probably that this anthology is both really good and just okay. Not bad as such, but it could’ve been so much better. The disappointment probably made it feel worse than it is because I would still recommend that you check it out on SCREAMBOX.

A runtime of 1 hour and 13 minutes, which includes several good horror shorts is plenty of reason to give it a shot. And hey, maybe you’ll like the ending that did nothing for me. You’ll have to watch it to find out. 

Night of the Missing is streaming on SCREAMBOX from November 28, 2023.

Details

Directors: Samuel Gonzalez Jr., Matthew Hershdir
Writers: Samuel Gonzalez Jr., Gigi Gustin
Stars: Meredith Thomas, Jill Awbrey, Gigi Gustin, Bill Moseley, Jenna Kanell, Justin Miles, Sheila Ball, Moriah N. Boone, Stephon Strickland, Joseph JoJo Martinez