Missing Child Videotape (2025)

Minimalistic atmosphere building the tension.

Nothing happens, but somehow the tension is high. Everything is vague, but you kind of understand what is going on. Rather than scary, it’s more eerie - driven by the atmosphere, not the plot. There is a lot of talking, still camera shots, pauses in dialogues. And with all that you will either enjoy it, or find it painfully boring.

I want to start with the fact the synopsis is a bit misleading. It makes it seem like the plot truly starts when they head to the woods, but that’s not the case - this ain’t Blair Witch Project. The majority of this movie seems like the exposition of the past, the lore for the mountain, the incident involving the child.

I would not fight anyone who would say they fell asleep watching this movie - I totally get it. Nothing happens for a good 80% of the runtime. They do not try to fill the gaps with fancy editing. Many dialogue heavy scenes are still cameras, the whole conversations shown from one angle with no cuts. And I think this is why it worked for me. At times it felt like you were there with the characters in the room. It gave the whole story quite a found footage vibe even though this is not exactly a found footage horror movie.

The performances were good. I don’t think the movie had enough depth to require groundbreaking acting, but for what was supposed to be presented, I have no complaints.

Overall, this will be either hit or miss. You will either buy the atmosphere they tried to create or not. Personally, I like these vague, nothing really is happening, but also everything feels wrong and creepy horror movies. For others it might be a snoozefest.

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