Sony Pictures has released a trailer for the upcoming Missing, a standalone sequel for the 2018’s popular internet-format thriller Searching.
Sony's Searching, directed by Aneesh Chaganty, uses the computer screen as a lens for storytelling, chronicling the plight of a father searching for his missing teenage daughter, with its plot relayed in text messages, internet pages, live streams, and face time calls. A new variation on the classic found footage format, the film’s events happen as the audience follows the circuitous routes of the internet and contemporary social media to discover the truth.
The trailer for Missing, planned as a standalone sequel to the earlier film, uses the same format to unravel its tale, showing a daughter (The Last of Us star Storm Reid) as her mother (Nia Long) leaves for an international trip. What follows is the typical teen behavior of forbidden parties during a parent’s absence, but it quickly turns horrific when her mother fails to appear at the airport to be picked up. Her efforts to find her mom result in a long path of discoveries about her mother’s secret life, alternate identities, and sinister plots.
Missing, directed by Will Merrick and Nick Johnson from a script by Sev Ohanian & Aneesh Chaganty, promises thrilling twists and turns. "When her mother (Nia Long) disappears while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend, June’s (Storm Reid) search for answers is hindered by international red tape. Stuck thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, June creatively uses all the latest technology at her fingertips to try and find her before it’s too late," reads the official Missing synopsis. "But as she digs deeper, her digital sleuthing raises more questions than answers...and when June unravels secrets about her mom, she discovers that she never really knew her at all."
Missing is an exciting new installment in two developing genres of thrillers, both the missing loved-one plot and the internet-formatted mystery, sometimes called screenlife genre, both of which have proven successful draws for audiences in the past few years with films like Searching and Unfriended. The sense of immediacy and resemblance to real-life internet sleuthing no doubt appeals to audiences who spend most of their time on screens. The film also presents unique challenges for the main character as she attempts to find out the truth from her relatively powerless position as a minor, relying entirely on technology to investigate from thousands of miles away.
Missing is due out in theaters on January 20, 2023.
Source: Sony Pictures/YouTube