Megan Is Missing (2011)

This movie sucks it's not scary it's not that funny that you want to see it sgain don't watch it

Megan Is Missing is the fictional account of two young girls who are seduced and kidnapped by a online predator. As a fan of mockumentaries and found footage films, I'd have to say that this ranks up there with some of the best ones in the horror genre. Mainly because it's very, deeply, incredibly unsettling. From a gore perspective, it's rather tame. There is not a single scene that shows someone actually being killed. It's mainly the aftermath that you see. I found that the way this story was told was brilliant, to be honest. Its relatively minimalist approach to backstory exposition, particularly regarding Megan's abuse as a child, is incredibly effective in establishing the causes for some of her extremely questionable actions in this film. She does things that are arguably nonsensical, but when she explains how she was molested as a ten year old by her camp counselor (in EXCRUCIATINGLY harrowing detail), you kind of understand why she does those things. Speaking of acting, I see reviews that chide the performances based mainly on decisions the girls and their friends make. They seem to forget that these are supposed to be relatively clueless teenage girls, and by default are SUPPOSED to make stupid decisions. Amber Perkins as Amy Herman is particularly good in her portrayal of an innocent 13-year old girl, convincing even as the horrible things that happen to her during the last act are happening. You really feel sorry for her as she pleads for her life, rather convincingly.And that last act...sheesh.Starting with the two photos of Megan that were found on the fake fetish website in the S & M contraption, broken, bruised, bloody, absolutely TERROR-STRICKEN...those all-too-brightly-lit pictures, coupled with what the film conveys about how evil the antagonist is, had me stunned. The stark, exposed, abject vulnerability in her eyes is something that sticks with me even as I type this.Also, the way the antagonist breaks the spirit and will of Amy in the final act is positively soul crushing. The part when he rapes her is as deplorable as anything I've seen in Irreversible, I Spit On Your Grave or Blindness. As a parent to a thirteen year old girl, this movie was really hard to watch. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of found footage horror. Very, very, very disturbing stuff.

There are so many things wrong with this movie that I don't even know where to begin. I guess I will start with the format.I'm not a fan of found footage in general, but Megan is Missing is exceptionally lazy in that it barely even adheres to this conceit. In order for the movie to work we the audience are expected to belief that teenagers in 2007 communicate almost entirely via video chat and that these conversations were recorded and stored. We are also expected to believe that photos and video of sexual assaults and murders were made available to the filmmakers. Since the film is never once convincing as found footage I have to wonder why the writer / director chose to tell the story this way.The acting ranges from barely adequate to absolutely atrocious across the board. The two main actresses are never convincing as 14/15 year olds and their performances are mediocre at best. Everyone else who appears on camera - the news anchors, the parents, the other friends - is downright embarrassing. They are not helped at all by the largely expositional and tin eared dialogue.While I am sure there are 14 year old kids out there doing drugs and having sex at random, the portrayal of those types of teens in this film did not ring true to me at all. The pervy, leering tone of the film reminded me a lot of movies I've seen by Larry Clark, where we the audience are theoretically supposed to be wringing our hands over the wasted youth of today etc. but the camera keeps ogling the hot young bodies on screen.This is particularly true of a scene where Megan recounts being forced to blow a 17 year old camp counselor when she was 10, giggling about it the whole time like it is an embarrassing sexual story and not actual rape. There are several other scenes of unnecessary sexuality in the film including a rape scene that make me feel like the film is implying that Megan deserves what eventually happens to her. That, or director Michael Goi is just a pedophile.The first 50 or so minutes of the film almost entirely consist of banal, repetitive dialogue and bad acting. Then we get to the two pictures of Megan and the final 20 minutes. This is the point where Megan is Missing shifts from being a terrible after school special and instead becomes a sadistic found footage horror film. These scenes are undeniably a gut punch and the only reason to see the movie at all.Here's the thing though: To this point Goi has positioned the film as one of those message movies that are supposed to serve as a wake up call to parents. But the film ultimately is pervy and disgusting exploitation. The director's claim that Megan is Missing is about anything other than presenting the highly sexualized torture and murder of its main characters is completely disingenuous and reminded me a LOT of the opening crawl to Chaos (2005) claiming that it was intended to save lives.The ONLY audience for this film are horror fans looking for something disturbing. That is fine, but I'm just warning you the movie absolutely sucks, nothing happens for the vast majority of the run time and you'll feel like you need a shower afterward. Consider that a warning or an endorsement.

Megan is Missing is a movie that deserves any scorn that it gets. It has some truly terrible acting and some weird directing choices. It's not well-made horror; it's effective horror. Megan is Missing is about two best friends, Megan and Amy, who meet a guy online named Josh and eventually get abducted and go missing. A majority of the film is just set-up for the eventual abduction of the girls. You do get to see each girl's personalities, social lives and just everything about them. Megan is one of the most popular girls at school. She has a bunch of friends, goes out drinking, and blows random guys at parties. Amy is on the opposite end of the spectrum. She's neat, doesn't have many friends, and doesn't go out much. Watching the two go through their normal days throughout the first act makes the final act so much more disturbing. The film does slow down a bit whenever "Josh" comes into the picture, and there are these short scenes of newscasts that are almost unbearable to watch because it has the world's most aggravating news anchor. The last twenty minutes, however, becomes unbearable for a completely different reason. The ending changes Megan is Missing from a somewhat dull drama thriller into a truly harrowing experience. There's some imagery in there that will be hard to shake for days to come. This is honestly a terrible film, but when the horror is as brutal and unforgettable as this, it is still worth a watch if you can stomach the material.