Missing 411

Documentary about children who go missing in national parklands. It's intriguing and heartbreaking. For some reason this director seems to believe in every crypto possibility there is. The flick is fashioned to point to an ET or crypto type answer to all of the mysteries surrounding these deaths. So sad but not believable.

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!

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 have followed David Paulides for a few years now and although this film was not what I expected I still have to applaud the excellent cinematography and work which has went into this production. Yes the main thread may provoke controversy but after watching the film again I have a different view on this. I felt that the Deorr case, for me anyway, demonstrated the difference between a 411 case and a homicide case. This may well not have been the intention but it was what I took from the film. This film is extremely important in that people MUST be made aware of what is going on out there, not just in America, but all over the world. Some people only care about themselves and that is their prerogative, however if you care about others and want to know what is happening then this work has to be supported. The film is a welcome break from all the usual CGI rubbish and I for one will watch it again and urge others to find out more about this subject.

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.