Megan Is Missing

This movie is so pathetic that it actually encouraged me to write my first review on IMDb. Why? Because i think it would be a crime and an irresponsibility not to warn the world from the insulting garbage i just watched. The problem with this movie is everything! I can't imagine hoe they could ever think this was good. the acting is abysmal, the writing is lazy and even funny (in a bad way) and the directing is worst than terrible. The overall idea of the movie is just wrong, the way the characters behave is not even close to how real people would act. The whole point of the movie is antagonizing the internet when the director and the creators of the movie don't even understand the concept of online browsing. THE DIRECTOR... Oh my god this guy made some mistakes not even i would have made in a high school movie project! The quality of the shots doesn't match the devices this movie is supposed to be shot with (like cellphones, "computer files", and web-cam footage) WHO the HELL says COMPUTER FILES! There is even a scene where you can actually hear the guy yelling "ACTION!" and he didn't edit that out. How careless is that? Have you no shame? I was so impressed by this that I googled the guy, and he is the... wait i have to take a moment to say this... he is the PRESIDENT of the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) That's it people. I'm out... I've got nothing. Do yourself a favor, and don't watch this movie. It's dumb, it's childish, it's terribly written, terribly acted, horribly edited and insultingly bad directed. It deserves less than a 0 in rating. From now on I will only write positive reviews for good movies because I don't want this to be my last one... It sure was my first one though.

Where on EARTH do you start.

First, I'm not an apologist for abuse - I'm a therapist who works, every day, with abuse and trauma. So I really GET an attempt to explore this issue - and warn - from the victim's point of view.

And, to be fair, filming this in 8 days? Remarkable.

But...

I'm left with all kinds of icky feelings. True, Megan is pretty unbearable. She's become a bit slutty, offering what she CAN offer to boys because she can - because it doesn't matter that much (enough) to her, and that first harrowing trivial hour makes it clear what made her life, her body, less important to her than it should have been.

And Amy? Well, she's annoying, and a bit too squeaky clean, but this is annoyingly tangled up with her own self image, when in fact it's Megan's self image that is really more impaired.

The artifice of the whole film being webcam, 'phone and video is clever. Clever as in cheap, and amateurish, which works.

But that last 22 minutes. Well. Sadly, it's better shot than the previous hour, it's boring in places, (digging is NOT good cinema), and, all in all, it left me, (leaves me), feeling hollow, and empty.

There is a claim, at the start of the film, that this is based on a true story, but I've looked, hard, and can't find any proof.

There's a terribly upsetting "Every day 2000 parents say..." about abduction. Gleaned from the Klass site. But on the very next line on the Klass site, this number is diminished, and also made less clear (ie. NOT juvenile).

I don't know. I don't want to damn this film, and I don't want to pretend abuse isn't a terrible thing. It's just that my sense is, somewhere, the director got lost, and the producers didn't say so.

I admire that this is being done - ie an attempt to raise the issue. AND that the film was clearly made on a shoestring, in 8 days. But 22 year old actresses just don't (can't) look 13, and simply because abused girls don't LOOK like they have any depth doesn't mean they don't HAVE any depth.

This isn't a complete damning of this film. 'Enjoy' would be wrong, but I watched it, at least. It's just - I don't know... It could have been so much better, and it could STILL have been filmed in 8 days.

I wasted $3.99 renting this movie because of the reactions of Gen Z on tiktok. This is by far the worst movie I have ever seen.

A boring and kinda empty movie its not very good and lacks emotional moments, its kinda not well actd either the exception are the two main kidnapping girls they are good, this movie is famous for his last 20 minutes and it's interesting to watch that ending, its kinda difficult but its ok. Overall its a good not good movie guys its kinda overrated im the iceberg scary movies but its ok, its has an unique storyline and its short and not boring but ITs not goos my guys this base in a fake story and you can tell because there are some errors and plot holes and that's never good guys ok overall not good.

I just watched Megan is Missing finally and I do not understand the level of hate this movie gets. Going to talk about it. Short answer: It's not for everyone but no horror is. But it does have a very underappreciated place in horror.

Exploitation films are films designed to make you feel bad and somewhat mock the genre they exist within. Even movies that are incredibly bleak (like this) tend to tell their story in an entertaining way. They still have a perspective and a purpose.

This movie doesn't.

It's fascinating in how that is portrayed. Found footage films, despite their nature, still always feel like a director's hand is involved. They're still guiding you through the story they want to tell in a specific way. Megan is Missing doesn't do that. A lot like the August Underground series, which is also grossly underappreciated, or the Slaughtered Vomit Dolls series..it's not trying to tell you a story necessarily. It's presenting a story to you in a very dry, perspectiveless, factual way. If this were real and you were someone forced to comb through actual footage, it would be like this. Not neatly spliced together like a traditional film but instead just be a series of plain events that on their own are honestly boring. But together it paints a much grimmer, bleaker, realistic picture for you because it doesn't tell you to feel any one way. A horror movie that doesn't force your hand to root for the villain or the victim. It just exists. This movie gets shot down a lot by people saying it's hollow and it's disturbing for the sake of being disturbing. You are 100% correct. It is. It's designed to be. This is a subgenre horror and the exploitation subgenre of horror particularly that is told in this way. It's also a time capsule of this era of history. I know people joke "internet bad" when talking about this movie but think about the nature of the internet in the mid 2000s to 2010. This movie takes place in 2007 and as someone who was on the internet in 2007..yea..this really mirrors what high schoolers can be exposed to online in that era of the internet. You have to understand this story in the context of that time which just adds to a sense of realism.

Now, would I recommend this movie? No. Unless you're like me and you happen to enjoy this kind of film making for the sake of it, then sure. But I won't call a genius film. You can have a disturbing and bleak slice-of-life kind of story and still have a traditionally entertaining story (A Serbian Film, Unfriended, Raise the Red Lantern, and Eden lake are all wonderful examples of this). But if you happen to enjoy August Underground or Slaughtered Vomit Dolls in terms of that story telling style, this is may be worth it for you. It's not gorey like those two it's more "baby's first introduction to this kind of film making" but it's a valid entry on that list. It could have been more impactful in a short story format but..only in the long format can you have 10 minutes of a guy digging a hole uninterrupted. That is part of the impact of the film. It's dry and mundane. Real life is far more horrific than story based horror. Megan is Missing is a prime example of that.