Movie Review: The Missing

In the pursuit of a contractual work in Japan, Iris became the victim of a curse that haunted her engagement as an architect of an over 100 year old house. Iris (Ritz Azul), a 28-year-old architect often hallucinates due to suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after losing her younger sister to a kidnapping syndicate. Meanwhile, Job (Joseph Marco), who is also an architect and an ex-lover of Iris, invites Iris to go to Japan for a job opportunity. The Missing also follows Len (Miles Ocampo), a graduating student who was born and has spent her childhood in Saga, Japan.

The Missing is beautifully shot horror film that shines with its smooth cinematography, eerie ambiance, good story and decent acting of the three leads, Ritz Azul, Joseph Marco and Miles Ocampo. Ritz Azul is quite good in this film showing the right balance of mystery and depth on her character. You will feel on this film the pain of her character in the past. The film effectively use its location to give us the fusion of Japanese and Filipino horror film. The silence, ambiance, subtle sound and musical scoring delivers a fair share of jump scare. It started slow on the first half, but definitely surprise you on the twist and turn on the second half. I would also like to commend the ghost and the horror elements that has been used in the film that feels very organic and does not rely heavily on special effects. I can say that The Missing is one of the decent horror films of Regal Entertainment and hoping that these is the start that they make more innovative Pinoy horror films.

 

My Verdict:  3.5/5