Welcome to Knockout Horror and to a Horror Movie Review. Today we are taking a look at another Screenlife Horror Movie, one that actually managed to find itself banned in New Zealand. The movie in question? Megan is missing. Spoiler alert, I hate this movie. It is a film without merit made by a man with some very questionable motives.
Megan is Missing follows the stories of friends Megan and Amy. Megan is a young girl that has suffered significant abuse during her life. Living with her mother, the pair have a strained relationship, on the other hand, her best friend Amy is the opposite. Shy and awkward around peers, Amy lives in a large house and has a positive relationship with her parents.
When Megan connects with a supposed fellow high school student online, they aim to meet in person. Only, Megan never makes it to the meeting, vanishing on the way. Amy is determined to find out what happened despite never realising the danger she, herself, is in.
A Timely Message and a Viral Hit
Megan is Missing has one thing to say that actually deserves some credit. Social media is dangerous; people can be whoever they want to be and you never know who is sitting on the other side of the screen. Monitor your kids and educate them on the dangers. This is still a very timely message. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that Megan Is Missing recently experienced a resurgence in interest.
Clips of the movie surfaced on TikTok and gained some serious traction because that’s what happens on TikTok thanks to its viewer base who are definitely below average IQ on general. This lead director Michael Goi to, cleverly, warn people about the movie, claiming it may cause upset due to its shocking nature. A very smart decision! Especially given the opportunity to kick up some old fashioned, shock value, popularity
My Most Hated Horror Movie?
A bold statement, right? That seems a little harsh, doesn’t it? Well, Megan is Missing is one of those rare horror films that I think is without merit. From an acting perspective, a direction perspective and a story perspective. The only positive thing I can say about this movie is that the message is important. I don’t actually believe that this movie was made to get that message across, though. I think the message is a bi-product of the director’s real intentions.
My partner and I actually attempted to watch this movie some ten years ago but we couldn’t even make it half way through. At the time, I believed it was simply a bad film. The awful writing, terrible interactions and unlikable cast made it a tough watch. Watching it again for this review. It is so much worse than I actually ever realised and for more reasons than just the technical ones.
Sure, this is a poorly made film with a very basic story full of negative messages and dreadful portrayals of female character. The writing is terrible and reads like an ancient man writing for teenage girls. Camera work is shoddy and the pacing is awful. But it is more than that. It’s not just the fact that young girls are portrayed as sexually promiscuous and almost deserving of their fates. It isn’t entirely down to the way male characters are shown to be “cool” and written to be witty and intelligent. There are so many reasons why this movie deserves scorn but talking too much about them would hide the much bigger issue here.
A Troubling Production
I want you to keep something in mind when you watch this movie. Rachel Quinn was born in 1993, this movie was shot in 2006, so she was 13-14 at the time this movie was made. Goi was completely okay with putting a 13-14 year old girl in a BDSM torture device. Actually putting her in it while wearing virtually nothing. He was completely okay filming a protracted assault scene with a 16 year old girl multiple times purely to get it right. Even at the protest of a male actor who nearly punched him due to the trauma it was causing everyone involved. He was totally fine with having a 13 year old girl painstakingly describe a harrowing sexual encounter at the age of ten with an adult man, almost enthusiastically as if she enjoyed it.
Goi puts no effort into the vast majority of what happens in this movie. He half arses every single last part of it with the exception of each and every sexual scene. Megan talks about being abused for a number of minutes, going into detail that is beyond excessive and does nothing to further the plot. A supposedly 14 year old character is assaulted for over three minutes complete with needless touches like the character’s hand being covered in blood to indicate that she was a virgin. This movie is sick but not in the way that a horror movie should be. In the way that a movie would be sick when made by a pervert that wants to bring sick fantasies to life.
Disturbing For All The Wrong Reasons
The thing that is really disturbing about Megan is Missing. Is that an old man was allowed to assemble a skeleton production crew. Give jobs to a bunch of non-actor minors and demand that they talk about childhood abuse, depict graphic scenes of sexual assault, wear next to nothing while strapped in to BDSM torture devices and have cold water thrown on them while wearing only underwear.
Megan is Missing frequently goes beyond what is required to tell a story. On top of that, Goi goes out of his way to present these characters in an overtly sexual manner, attempting to numb the viewer’s sense of sympathy. None of these elements add anything to the movie.
We don’t need to see a child, Yes, a CHILD, strapped into a BDSM torture device to be disturbed. We don’t need to see a minor react to being assaulted. The only person who ever needed to see that was Michael Goi. What makes it even worse is that both girls have related the trauma of this shoot and how difficult it was. Trauma that comes purely from an old man wanting his scenes of child abuse to be exactly how he had envisioned them in his mind.
The New Zealand Film Board banned Megan is Missing saying “It relished in the spectacle of one girl’s ordeal. Including a three-minute r**e scene”. While also claiming it sexualized the lives of young teenage girls. In fact, to a “highly exploitative degree”. Something I think is 10000% true. Goi glorifies the horrifying abuse that takes place here. Relishing it, in fact, and taking it much too far.
Should You Watch Megan is Missing?
Let’s imagine Megan is Missing was a horror movie with no controversy; let’s pretend that Goi didn’t film scenes that indulge in the assault of a minor and that he didn’t have a 13 year old girl painstakingly describe oral r**e.. Let’s pretend that Megan is Missing is just a normal movie, one that didn’t feature a 13 year old girl being placed in a BDSM device. If that were the case, this would simply be a bad screenlife horror. Poorly directed, terribly written and quickly forgotten. No scares, bad acting and a poorly delivered message about online safety.
But that isn’t the case. Instead, it is a movie that is offensively bad and disturbing for all the wrong reasons. Megan is Missing exploits its young actors, asking them to put to film things they should never have to do. It is misogynistic in its portrayal of young girls, all while depicting male characters as charismatic and fun. It is terribly written with no nuance and no depth. The writing only deepens when we have an underage character talk about sex. Megan is Missing is one of the worst horror movies I have ever seen. No, you shouldn’t watch it. It is horrible. The only time horror has ever disturbed me is when I feel like the director is dragging us into his sick perversions that revolve around underage people. That, in my opinion, is the case here.
