Misper

An intoxicating blend of comedy, thrills, chills and things that go bump in the basement is well stirred in this debut feature by Harry Sherriff, set in one of those dilapidated seaside hotels with an all-pervading atmosphere of decay.

Not only is the hotel building, named The Grand (what else?), practically crumbling before our vision but outside the sad surrounds of Folkestone in Kent just add to the sense of a place that time has neglected.

No wonder director Harry Sherriff and screenwriter Laurence Tratalos were keen to unleash their inner Kubricks, Kaurismäkis and Lynchs in a riff around similar genres with The Shining even getting a line of its own.

The set-up is relatively simple and straightforward: one of the hotel’s retinue of assorted employees (Elle, played by Emily Carey) goes missing. The narrative explores not what happens to her but rather the effect on those she leaves behind, including porter come check-in clerk Leonard (played with hang-dog melancholy by Samuel Blenkin) who broods on her disappearance with a manic intensity.

The assorted character actors all have a field day, a particular pleasure being the precious manager (Daniel Ryan) who surveys the decaying relic with unease and dreams of better days elsewhere.

It’s filmed with a dark sense of brooding as the camera roams the faded grandeur of corridors and salons with some of those who stay there all the time making benevolent guest appearances.

As a combo Sherriff and Tratalos appear to revel in the theatre of the absurd and relish exploring a riff on a standard true crime genre with not a police officer in sight. There may be “a missing person” (hence the misper of the title) but don’t make any assumptions about standard crime procedurals. This is all so much more original and intriguing.

Reviewed on: 22 Aug 2025