WE ARE THE MISSING *** Canada 2020 Dir: Andrew J.D. Robinson. 83 mins
When a college student goes missing from the small town of D’Arcadia, her friends, family, and acquaintances sit down to be interviewed for a documentary about her disappearance. But then the people who participate in the documentary go missing one by one. Soon, dozens of citizens of D’Arcadia go missing. Those who are left behind begin to see horrific spirits haunting the town, creating mass hysteria about this unexplainable phenomenon and what the dead want with the living.
We Are The Missing is shot documentary-style, following closely to its source material. The actors perform, are lit, and edited just like a standard interview. Their delivery doesn’t always sound natural as much as recited, but overall, they pull off this realistic style, mimicking the true crime documentaries that have increased in popularity over the years.
Very quickly, though, the story begins to take on a more supernatural tone as the supernatural elements come into play. Likely due to the budget, the ghosts are relegated to recordings and a few brief glimpses rather than the larger role they play in the later half of the original story. So, the actual horror is downplayed. But overall, the film is a thought-provoking, interesting take on lucid dreaming, the afterlife, and those famous cases of people who famously vanish without a trace.
Review by Laura Smith