Missing Child Videotape (2024)
Genre: Horror / Mystery
Duration: 104 minuten
Alternative titles: Misshingu Chairudo Bideotēpu / ミッシング・チャイルド・ビデオテープ
Country:
Japan
Directed by: Ryota Kondo
Stars: Rairu Sugita, Amon Hirai and Kokoro Morita
IMDb score:
5,4 (421)
Releasedate: 24 January 2025
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Reviews & comments
Collins
-
- 7355 messages
- 4353 votes
For several years now, horror films featuring old videos with grimy footage have been a staple. These are usually blurry images infected with noise or overexposure at crucial moments. In his feature debut, director and writer Ryoto Kondo uses such a grimy video recording to tell a horror story. I found Missing Child Videotape, which takes a found-footage approach, unoriginal and unexciting.
With a videotape, a gloomy forest, an abandoned building, and a missing child, the story's ingredients have been mentioned. These are ingredients that can color a film in an atmospheric way. Ingredients that can bring mystery, oppression, and suspense to a film. The found footage method Kondo uses is not that way. I can appreciate good found footage, because it exists. However, this film doesn't belong to that category. The filming quality in this film is in line with the quality of the videotape. The camera is very mobile. The film lacks a nice rhythm and is constantly restless. No well-rounded scenes, but uncontrolled breaks that suggest dynamism, I suspect. They annoyed me. There is also "subtle" camerawork. The camera suggests a lot and reveals nothing of substance. When an atmospheric foundation is constructed, suggestion creates tension. Here, that foundation is missing, and it makes no sense.
The irritations mounted. The characters are uninteresting. The filming style is tiring. The film lacks mystery. It lacks suspense. It lacks atmosphere. The lengthy runtime is completely disproportionate to the poor content. I found Missing Child Videotape a difficult delivery.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Corporate & Media
Realtimes Network
Innovatieweg 20C
7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31(315)-764002
