Missing 411

So, from the moment I found out about the work David Paulides was doing with his books in "The Missing 411" series, my eyes were opened to an extremely bizarre and troubling phenomenon. People have been going missing in clusters around the country with mysterious circumstances and a large percentage are in national parks, and the parks system doesn't keep (or at least release) database information about these people??? This is what I believe is the true focus of this film and all of the books... to warn people of the potential danger that clearly exists but is being downplayed. We're not imagining these people missing... the information Paulides presents in the books and movies is from actual newspaper articles, police reports and witness testimony. so to give this film a bad rating because of completely unrelated situations, opinions, and unsubstantiated claims is to completely miss the point and do a disservice to the true purpose of the movie and books. Sure, we all were hoping for a ton of the thought provoking case profiles in the books to be presented, but that just logically could not happen in a 1.5 to 2 hour long film. If we really care about the people who have gone missing and their families and anyone who will potentially go missing in the future, we need to get over ourselves and help promote this movie so attention will be drawn where attention is severely needed. My heart goes out to the families that have suffered through the unthinkable, and I hope this movie and the other work Paulides is doing will honor them by bringing that much needed attention. I too selfishly wanted more, but maybe positively promoting this film will get me more sequels to satisfy my selfishness (and subsequently bring even more attention to the lost!)

God bless.

These films are at the out set quite intriguing simply by the seemingly very large numbers of persons disappeared in wilderness areas. However the cherry picking of cases and often just not stating the most probable causes of disappearances panders to uncritical minds. For example the man who was said to shed his pants folded as if he melted. But, that disregards hypothermal and dehydration do cause people to become delirious and shed clothing in frigid conditions. Numerous cases from Artic deaths show this. There also was a man who as a child managed to walk 20 plus miles and was lucky to find help. He said he experienced nothing supernatural. So we know small children can do things we might not expect. That would include walking away from adults. But frankly these cases do not explore the mundane or criminal sides of the vanishings. But, its worth while to speculate, but I am sure by now this has made its promoters very wealthy.

I'm familiar with and not a fan of the books and based on that, I thought this would be terrible. I was intrigued by the cases shown in this documentary because of the human element and the impact it has on people involved in the search and families. I also enjoyed the film touching on the hindrance of social media to grieving families. It's enough to say that exploring nature can be dangerous and disorientating especially for a small child. Experienced hikers, mountaineers, hunters and guides are also among those who go missing each year and rather than add to the mystery of it all, I felt that just says more about our fragility as human beings and our ability to make mistakes, especially when exposed to the elements.

I've read books and listened to many interviews. This movie has captured the raw emotion of the families effected by these strange disappearances and offered so much more with the interviews of people involved. Having such a well-respected wilderness expert explain things as he did really drive it home. There's nothing more precious than a child and I hope this movie helps to make people aware of how quickly a child can disappear. Great movie!

A very well produced movie, the cinematography wonderfully presented and the subject matter gripping. Being a long follower of the missing 411 work, I was excited to see the product of all the research and strange circumstances surrounding individuals who inexplicably vanished. The film introduces the phenomena well and sets up a documentary which you immediately can not turn away from. I looked forward to the interviews shown in the trailer but found these did not make the final cut, a little disappointing considering Paulides and George Knapp have so much to say on the subject. The film pivots around one single case which to be fair is very interesting, if not a little shady. Some would comment a huge amount of suspicion around the case which for me personally left me wanting the film to move on from this and present other cases mentioned in the books those being the main profile that make David's work so compelling: K9 scents, folded clothes, missing shoes, change of weather, the impossibility of locations, boulder fields the list goes on. The film touches on this ever so briefly but I feel nothing presented in this documentary is a classic missing 411 event. However it is a very interesting film and I hope the start of a running set of films which will open up the whole Missing 411 enigma. Well done to everybody involved and continue this fantastic research. A brilliant effort.