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The Guardian

Misper review – mystery, melancholy and murder in a faded seaside town

Here is a solid first feature debut from director Harry Sherriff, an atmospheric crime drama set in a gloomy, decaying seaside town, with an eerie depiction of grief experienced by those who exist within the margins of the life of a murdered girl. The film follows Leonard (Samuel Blenkin), a meek hotel concierge who has a boyish crush on his charming 25-year-old colleague Elle (Emily Carey). Dressed in a red raincoat with short dark hair and a wry smile, Elle's character is very much reminiscent of Jordana Bevan in Richard Ayoade's 2010 film Submarine, as is the dry sardonic humour peppered into the script. Leonard and Elle's exchanges are awkward yet sweet, teetering on the edge of a true connection. That is, until Elle doesn't show up to work one day and reports of a missing person trickle through the town. The hotel staff are rattled by Elle's disappearance and when news breaks that her body has been found, this chilling bereavement subtly upends their lives. Misper (an abbreviated term used by the police to refer to a missing person) is stylistically compelling in its atmosphere building. There is an unsettling sense of staleness that runs throughout the film, characterised by the beige, stained walls of the old-timey, mostly vacant hotel, and Leonard's expression, which is permanently set in a sunken, shell-shocked gaze. 'I feel like I'm in a horror film,' he says, as he attempts to schedule an appointment with a therapist over the phone. This empty hotel is a prime site for horror and although Misper dabbles in the genre with some nightmarish flashes of Elle haunting Leonard after her death, it doesn't go all the way. Nor does it follow the pathway of a crime drama, refusing to offer up the salacious details of Elle's death in the true crime manner (though there a brief yet frightening visit by a 'fan' of the dead girl). The nature of Elle's murder and the profile of her killer are pushed into the periphery. What is at the forefront is the bafflement, melancholy and looming sense of dread that the hotel staff are faced with as they attempt to grapple with a return to normality. In the film's final moments, a crew is shooting a crime drama series based on the events of Elle's death and disappearance, six months after it happened. The bleak misery remains but drifts into the eeriness of the uncanny. Misper screened at the Edinburgh film festival