6/10
Better Than Average Horror Anthology
29 November 2023
"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.
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