Megan Is Missing (2011) Reviews

• the only thing disturbing is why was this even made.

  jason_leo2011-05-10

  i watch a lot of movies and have come across kid related stuff before IE hard candy, the woodsman, hound dog,. how it starts is very insulting to anyone with a brain by saying its actual footage etc... 2 seconds in you know its not and the fact it is based on actual crimes that it uses mixed with fiction is disgusting to actual victims. if you think the film is made to raise awareness about danger you are very sadly mistaken as shown by many aspects of the film. three main scenes raise serious questions about the film makers intentions and whether he should be let near anyones kids. the first is the photos designed to shock you. second is the over the top up close rape scene of what is meant to be a 14 year old kidnapped girl. last but no means least is the web cam chat about summer camp. in one scene Megan tells her friend about her first bj at summer camp when aged 10 she goes on to describe it in detail appearing to not have been bothered but it but more to have enjoyed it. this scene has no bearing on the film but does raise a serious question as to why the filmmaker glorifies child abuse. really strange and very disturbing. in short the acting sucked the filmed sucked and the filmmaker should probably be looked at by they police

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• Just a very unrealistic, badly put together movie...

  j-b-51-7778912011-05-12

  At the beginning of this movie we are told that it is based on a true story. I'd like to see that story as this movie seems like the most unrealistic depiction of an Internet predator case I've ever seen. I can recall watching a 10-minute awareness movie in high school that was more true to life. Don't get me wrong, I think that it is vital to stay informed, kids do get lured over the Internet, but the way this movie presents it is laughable. First of all, the characters are incredibly shallow clichés. The abused girl who values herself very little and thus engages in risky behavior including drinking, doing drugs and having indiscriminate sex. Her best friend is the cardboard cut-out of the good girl, and is picked on for being so. Both girls seem completely naive to the point where they should not be allowed to be online, let alone in chat rooms. While chatting with "Josh" they are almost oblivious to his contradictions (dog wrecked web cam/little brother wrecked web cam), his stalker-like behavior and his avoidance of showing himself on video or in person. Even more problematic in my viewing of the film is the way the kidnapping case was portrayed. If a minor like Amy came forward with evidence like she did, her identity should be kept a secret, as should the information she shared. There are reasons why certain information is not revealed in an investigation. Also, as Amy was one of the last people who saw Megan, she should have been questioned, and the information about "Josh" should have been discovered much sooner. Even after all of this, Amy is still chatting with "Josh" even when it becomes very apparent he is the kidnapper. Also, in a case like this, officials should be able to track "Josh's" location via his IP address. Also, "Josh's" profile as a criminal is very blurry. He seems to be intelligent in some cases, however, he makes some major mistakes in other cases. He is not a believable criminal, and were this movie reality, the police should have been able to track him down. This movie was just not up to par for either being an informative video or a "scary movie." It relied solely on the hype and fixation people unfortunately have on the idea of people being dramatically kidnapped by Internet predators. Skip this one.

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• I get what they were going for, but that doesn't make it good (heavy spoilers)

  gavynhelfyre2012-10-26

  I'm sorry. I know I'm in some sort of minority about this movie, but frankly I think it was terrible. The first part of the movie was pretty poorly written and the acting wasn't terribly much better. Far too much of this movie was told to us instead of shown, which is a surefire way to make you not care about characters that the finale requires you to care about. If a character has to tell you that they're broken, instead of you seeing it revealed through their own actions and the revelation of those weaknesses... even the revelation of their awareness of those weaknesses, then you haven't made me feel for the characters inherent sadness. "I'll pretty much do anything as long as you tell me you love me," should be a heart breaking revelation... but it wasn't earned one bit. It just fell flat and made me say "okay, so she's broken.... what a stereotype". Frankly I think making this a found footage film was a mistake. While I'm sure it was done to try to bump the realism factor, the genre itself is so limiting that it forces awkward scenes and also some very strange moments like Megan and Amy doing some sort of video chat on their phones when they're literally on their way to each other (apparently a very short distance). It also forces one to question who in the film was recording all of these Skype sessions and why were they recording them? Moving beyond that, crucial points in the film are also gaping plot holes. When the Amy character finally goes to the police about Megan's possible kidnapper (after strangely not telling them about him earlier, you know, before the odds of her being alive shrink dramatically) they plaster her name and face all over the news. I'm sorry, but that sort of thing does not happen. Additionally, if all of Megan's Skype sessions were recorded, wouldn't the police know about Josh before hand? Also, if Josh is going around posting photos of Megan on message boards, then there's obviously a way to track him. Unless we're expected to believe that Josh is not only a kidnapper, rapist and murderer, but also a computer whiz. None of it adds up, but it's all crucial to the plot. Finally, let's talk about those last 22 minutes. I'm sorry, but if you're deeply disturbed by those last 22 minutes, you have missed A LOT of films in the last 40 or so years. The last 22 minutes felt way too sanitized, likely because of the characters ages, when held up against things like the original Last House on the Left or even the remake of The Hills Have Eyes (watching the attack scenes in those films, I felt I needed a shower afterward just to feel clean. Last House particularly felt so much like a snuff film when I first saw it, it took a long time for me to watch it again). She's kept prisoner, raped and then stuffed in a barrel with, yeah you saw it coming a mile away, her dead friend. Then we sit through a man digging a whole for 10 minutes while Amy, clearly not seeing where this is going, tries to talk her way out of the barrel. This all leads to a big problem with the climax- Amy never really seems to take her situation seriously. She never does anything but scream at Josh. She seems to think that "if you let me go I won't tell anyone" will be taken seriously. To top it off, even during the brief moments in these last 22 minutes when she's not chained up, Amy makes absolutely no attempts to escape. At one point there is clearly a jagged piece of metal a few inches from her head, and she never goes for it... she just keeps crying for help. Seriously? I'm sorry, but this film just doesn't work. It expects you to find it's subject matter shocking and disturbing because it's made its characters 14 years old (though the actress who played Megan looked far older then 14). This fails because unless you sell me on what I'm watching, just telling me that this person is a specific age will not make me engaged during their problems later in the film. It doesn't engage a willing suspension of disbelief. Make me care up front, or when I need to care... it'll be too late. I get what the filmmakers were going for, and I applaud the effort. I think that if they hadn't tried to cash in on the "found footage" boom that's been going on, they may have made a much more engaging and effective film. A film that makes you care, instead of expecting you to care because adult actors are playing characters of a certain age.

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• Like that one time...

  miel-van-dam2013-02-28

  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.

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• A lot of Hype for A lot of Gore

  mrsdrasek2012-05-25

  This movie was kind of pointless except for shock value, it didn't send a message at all other than claiming "based on true events" and hype over the last 22 minutes being "actual footage". Parents need to realize that although the film boasts that it is sending a message about online sexual predators this film is very brutally graphic. I got tired of hearing moms say they were making their daughters watch this. No normal parent would let their children watch this garbage to "send a message". Be a parent and do your job. It wasn't hard to find out where some of the ideas came from for the film. It was loosely based, but drew from the murders of two young Oregon girls. Their murderer was not even a man they met online but a neighbor who's daughter they befriended. They were also abducted on their was to school. Only one was buried in the blue barrel in the back yard, the other in box in his shed. He was caught and convicted and is serving out two life sentences. Sure stuff like this happens every day but it can be put forward as a message sender like movies such as "Trust" to get the point across, not a below B flick horror. Sadly its would be message is lost on the target audience that could have watched a more thought out form of it, rather than it just being more horror fodder for gore fans who seem to the bulk watching it.

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