Onde Está Megan?

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.

I remember that, a while back, the government of my country (The Netherlands) was trying to put together an educational program to teach teenagers about the dangers of the Internet and how sexual predators are active on it (don't meet up with someone alone, and all that). This film's only purpose seems to be made for just that, it's an educational video. In the USA you have those ads "Meth, not even once"? This has the same message written all over it. No harm done, but don't call it a movie...

Some of the reviewers on this site and several others have said that the message is the most important thing about this flick, but I'll let you in on a secret: it's not. The acting was horribly unconvincing, the characters where flat, shallow stereotypes, and as far as the rape scene: go watch "Irreversible" and then come back and tell me that was the worst, stomach hurting, godaweful scene you ever saw in a movie. Plus, that movie *will* enrich your life, whereas this one really doesn't.

In short, if you haven't seen it: don't watch it.

Obviously DesertTrash (previous reviewer) is an idiot by all definitions. This isn't a "snuff" film nor is it meant to be. The creators of this movie, which were based on actual events by the way, were trying to educate viewers of todays predators and the ease of doing so using modern technology that many of the younger generation consider to be tame and innocuous. I agree that this is a tough film to watch especially if you have children that at teenagers or younger but it is also a call to arms for parents and responsible caring adults to take notice of their children's activities and know who their friends are and above all, to be involved in their children's lives. I wouldn't classify this movie as entertainment by any means nor did I find it enjoyable or a "feel good movie" to cuddle up with a loved one on a Saturday night but I would highly recommend it to any parent today. It's one of the scariest films I've seen in a long long time.

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.

Whenever i read the reviews of this movie, everybody is saying its disturbing, or it would burn you for life. What makes this movie so scary is that its very realistic. Almost every 14 year old girl in America video chats, and even though this case is very rare, it happens.i would say yes... if you are a sensitive then i suggest you not watch this. the suspense and the creepiness are very high in this movie are very very high. but i think the 1 thing i didn't like about this movie was the acting. it was one of the worst I've honestly ever seen.... all except Rachel Quinn (who plays Megan) it was also a little confusing because the movie is missing big chunks of information but i guess thats understandable giving its all recorded on a camera or a laptop. but over all its a super sad and creepy movie