That opening establishes Cho as a protective father of his teenage daughter, the pair of them in different ways struggling to process the death of their wife/mother a year or two previous. Things then take a turn – it’s the premise of the movie, not a spoiler – when said daughter disappears. That leaves Father Cho (as nobody calls him) with a succession of technological devices, an overflowing bin in his kitchen, and a whole lot of social media accounts to explore, as he hunts for his missing daughter. As such, what we see on screen is played out on screens. Via Facebook pages, iMessage conversations, videos, phone calls that are routed through a computer or the occasional news feed. And for two thirds of the film, it’s really great. You’re all but encouraged to pore over the screen, the icons, the clues, the unread email messages, in the hope of solving the film’s core mystery. It’s a cinematic language that works even better as a thriller than it did in horror, and director Aneesh Chaganty – who co-wrote the script with Sev Ohanian – proves expert at turning the script. The momentum is lost just a little come the film’s resolution, although that’s not to directly criticise the film’s narrative endpoint. More that the reliance then shifts to wrapping up threads and more television news feeds, that lack the inherent claustrophobia and mystery of exploring someone’s laptop. It’s a fair argument too that the plot itself, removed from the novelty approach to telling the story, isn’t particularly radical when you stop and think about it afterwards. But the film has two massive assets in its corner. Searching is in UK cinemas from August 31st.
