Megan is missing, she is missed a lot, but the buzz is still there Cinemax
)A few days ago we visited a friend’s house. While the girls were playing with Anna and Elsa, drawing, abusing the dolls and above all making a mess, one of the friends suddenly mentioned a horror movie with clips that he had seen on TikTok. “Something about a girl who starts getting revenge on the people who raped her,” he said. “Aha, aha! This rape-revenge movie is like ‘I Spit n Your Grave,’ I said excitedly, ignoring the fact that there were little girls in it. Since I’m not a Tik Tok person, I tried to understand how much discussion there is around the movie and whether it’s good for old or forgotten movies to be ‘resurrected’ through social media. I quickly came up with a name, ‘Missing Megan,’ which made a big splash. hysterical. its comeback a few years ago – mainly thanks to Tiktok, Twitter and other issues.
Like many other horror fans, I missed “Megan is Missing” when it came out in 2011. When all this buzz started around it, I finished watching to see what everyone was talking about. A few years have passed since then and I still remember certain scenes from the film, but it’s hard to say that it had a profound impact on me.
Megan disappeared, but resurrected thanks to social networks
Let’s start at the beginning. “Megan is Missing” is an American Found Footage film with a meager budget of only around $35,000. Reportedly, the film’s crew consists of only five members, with the writer, director, editor and executive producer being Michael Goi. The script was written in ten days and filming lasted about a week. Briefly, it tells the story of Megan, a popular high school student (Rachel Quinn), chatting online with Josh, whom she considers a charming guy. At one point, she decides to meet him but disappears. Her best friend, Amy (Amber Perkins), begins to investigate the case. Unfortunately, she quickly discovers what happened to her friend and faces an equally cruel fate, spoiler-free.
“Megan is Missing” is a rather short film, only around 85 minutes. It’s also quite slow until the last part, or should we say “Megan is Missing”, the last 20 minutes, which includes most of the horror. Many people are asking themselves (and “Dr. Google”) a question: Is “Megan Missing” real? The confusion is quite clear. The film presents itself as based on real cases. This is what appears in the first subtitle that opens the film as well as in the trailer. In practice, it’s different from that. Although the film is inspired by cases of child abduction, which unfortunately happens every day around the world, its particular story is fictional. It is not certain that this will reduce the dangers presented there, which can also occur in reality, but it is important to set the record straight.
Here’s the trailer for “Megan in Missing,” which – thank goodness and quite unusually – doesn’t show all the scary parts:
What is Megan missing?
The film contains some scenes that are difficult to watch, no doubt. Without making too many spoilers, there are, among other things, a fairly detailed rape scene, two stills from “Megan is Missing” which show a girl in a very problematic situation with torture devices that seemed to come from a museum dedicated to the field, a few macabre canon-related seconds and a long and of course final “Megan is Missing” scene, where one of the characters is buried alive. If you read these descriptions, you may already be imagining the scariest horror film of the genre. 21st century. This topic has come up in some renewed reviews of the film, notably in posts that began piling up in late 2020 on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms. Scenes from the film were posted online, people’s reaction videos appeared, posts were written, and tens of thousands of tags were posted for the film in a matter of days.
Nearly a decade after its release and without leaving a significant mark among the sea of films we see, “Megan is Missing” has suddenly become a pretty big hit, particularly viral, around the world. For example, the director of the film gave viewers ridiculous warnings, warnings that should help create buzz. Some countries boycotted the film, such as New Zealand. Many others criticized the film and called it “torture porn”, among other negative descriptions. In our context, such definitions can further increase interest in a certain text. The author of these lines, for example, completed a seminar during his university studies on the pleasure of watching torture films.
Has Megan disappeared?
On the other side, to which the author of these lines belongs, many believe that the agitation around “Megan is missing” is exaggerated. Firstly, the film could have been better directed in some respects. Of course, this can be blamed on the low budget and minimal crew count, but the bottom line is that we got a poorly filmed product, with terrible acting and a terrible storyline. Although the film has a few unusual scenes, they are short and do not fit into the overall horror fabric. The effect of these scenes was insignificant for me (and for many other people, considering the low 4.6 rating the film has on IMDB and the negative reviews from most critics). Everything Around is far from compelling, and with mileage of thousands of films, I and many others have been able to see films that have affected us more. The film didn’t make me lose sleep or the images that accompanied me later, but maybe the problem was me.
The question we can ask is to know to what extent, even today, after the rather brief frenzy around “Meghan is missing”, it still manages to arouse interest. To find out this, I did a quick test using Internet tools. The first is Google Trends, which displays search trends for certain phrases on Google by time and location. This tool doesn’t exactly show the number of searches, but it does show that over the last five years, there was a crazy spike around the film for a few weeks towards the end of 2020, and the rest of the time a minimal amount compared to that spike.
In practice, the search volumes for “Megan is Missing” are quite impressive. Even though they were higher during the peak months of 2020, it’s still a good search number. In the United States alone, for example, the average number of searches for relevant phrases related to the film amounts to several tens of thousands of searches per month (primarily the name of the film) or thousands of searches for complementary keywords, including those referring to the main scenes of the film and the still images it shows. For example, “Megan is Missing Barrel Scene” (nearly 5,000 searches per month). Of course, many searches include people wanting to know how to watch the movie, which shows that FOMO is still there.
Even without Megan’s disappearance: the future looks scary
Speaking of social media, the dangers of this film cannot be ignored. The topics discussed there, such as the dangers of the Internet, predictions and kidnappings, are not new. In recent months, threats have only grown with the rise of artificial intelligence. Today, with a few clicks and written commands, it is possible to display realistic images of people in places where they were not, to perfectly simulate their voices (as we saw in Deep Fake videos) and to create entities that did not exist. It’s perhaps an ironic coincidence that one of the talked-about films of 2023, also named “Megan” (well, “M3GAN”), is about an artificial intelligence robot that goes out of control and goes on a murderous rampage.
With all the completely justified excitement around Chat GPT, Midjourney and other artificial intelligence sites taking over the world in recent months and which I believe will lead to one of the greatest revolutions in history, there are many dangers here that will most likely appear in horror films for years to come. We recently saw, for example, the disturbing “Influencer,” which presents exactly these issues: a psychopathic woman who hides network influencers on a remote island and embodies them perfectly, thanks in part to the wonders of technology. “Megan is Missing” may fit these relevant fears perfectly, and the scary thing is that in the years since its release, the list of digital threats seems to have only grown longer.
Should you watch Megan is Missing?
as you may have realized for yourself, I am divided, as is James Mcavoy. As a film, “Megan is Missing” is a dull product that doesn’t meet many of the professional standards we’ve come to expect (which, let’s face it, aren’t always high in the horror world). It also didn’t affect me too much or leave a serious mark, which is something only a few films really do.
On the other hand, it does have some disturbing moments, like the barrel scene from Megan is Missing and these two photos of Megan is Missing appearing in the film. This also ties in with the fear that should worry all parents, especially right now. If you haven’t seen the movie in the buzz over the last few years, find out where to watch “Megan is Missing” and give it an hour or so. At most, like that horrible Winnie the Pooh horror movie, we can always blame social media.
Where can I watch Megan is Missing?
Thanks to all this buzz, you can watch “Megan Is Missing” on various platforms, including Amazon, Google Play, and Vudu. (Note: We may earn a commission for purchases made through some of these links)
