Content Warning: This article contains discussions of sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and grooming.
Megan Is Missing is a 2011 found-footage horror movie involving two teen girls named Megan and Amy who are quite active online. It follows the abduction of the two girls after Megan meets with a man online and what happens to them after they disappear.
Michael Goi, the movie’s director, presents disturbing issues in a way that leaves nothing up for discussion. The viewer feels they watched a thinly-veiled splatter film while the director believes he taught the audience a lesson on internet safety.
In reality, Megan Is Missing does more scaring the viewer than educating them.
The movie’s reception was pretty negative and controversial until 2020’s quarantine during which teens and young adults were looking for something thrilling to pass the time. It had a resurgence in popularity with TikTok users discussing on how traumatizing it was and how it scared them into not leaving their homes for days.
Many users claim it is too scary and traumatizing, even with Goi warning watchers to “not watch the movie in the middle of the night” and “do not watch the movie alone.”
The graphic imagery and disturbing subject matter of the movie are the reasons why it became popular online in the first place, enticing young audiences. The content within the film was greatly criticized upon release, and it was banned in New Zealand for “objectionable” content and “worse for the good of the public.”
However, many applaud the movie as essential, needing to be shown to parents and younger people who are active online, especially with strangers.
This brings up my main problem with the movie: the fact it scares viewers into not using the internet instead of properly teaching them to be safe online.
At the beginning of the movie, viewers learn it is based on actual events, making many viewers believe the story is real and a documentary.
Numerous issues arise when teens stumble across the film and genuinely believe this happened. Goi states the film is not based on one specific case but several cases of minors being kidnapped and murdered.
That in and of itself already feels awful: being aware that Megan is Missing is based on multiple people’s suffering feels revolting.
It is not wrong to worry for younger people’s safety while they are online, it is wrong, however, to use similar cases where teens were violently taken advantage of and had their lives changed forever or even taken from them and then depict it in such a way that it can be triggering for those who survived through similar situations.
This isn’t to dismiss that children, teens, and even adults can be vulnerable to grooming and abduction from strangers online. Goi said his purpose with this movie was to shine more light on the dangers of the internet.
While it is a fact that a good portion of adolescents will roll their eyes and sigh dramatically at being told how to stay safe. Internet safety has to be taught in a safe and enclosed environment with no actual danger. Lessons like Megan Is Missing should not scare the learner.
