** Note, there will be spoilers below **

Photo #1.

The director of Megan Is Missing, Michael Goi, released a video after the film came back to prominence, saying you had about four seconds before you actually saw the image.

It’s an image that once seen isn’t forgotten easily. It also shows that the director of the film wasn’t holding back. Up until this point, a lot of the film, a found footage film, does what most other found footage films do, spend time introducing the characters, in this case, fourteen year old Megan (Rachel Quinn) and Amy (Amber Perkins), her best friend.

But after that image, you know that this film will go places most other films will.

And it does.

Written and directed by Michael Goi, he intended Megan Is Missing to be a cautionary tale about the dangers online and of meeting strangers that you connect with there. It is not the only film to deal with this topic. David Schwimmer made the film Trust in 2010. Even the lead singer of Twisted Sister, Dee Snyder, wrote a film touching on the idea with 1996’s Strangeland. It’s a plot, that no doubt has been used in other films, TV shows and books too.

In a lot of ways, Megan Is Missing doesn’t reinvent the story and perhaps would have been simply regarded as another found footage film and perhaps have been forgotten…if not for the final part of the film.

Looking into the making of the film, it shows that the director, Goi insisted that the parents of the young actresses were on set for the more graphic aspects of the film. You can understand why as this film, perhaps more than some, needed those parents or someone there to look after them, especially for Amber Perkins and her ordeal in the final act. She is very good indeed, conveying her suffering and I imagine very emotionally draining and having her parents there was definitely a good thing.

Goi may hold back to a degree, but after seeing those photo images earlier in the film, when we do see Amy suffer, your head goes to places you really don’t want it to go. In some ways, this is similar to my reaction to watching a film like Hounds Of Love, where you don’t see a lot of more disturbing aspects, but see enough on screen to take your own head to dark, horrible places. On this level, Goi’s film succeeds.

And then there is the final minutes. Watching Amy plead for her life, as ‘Josh’, the person responsible for their disappearance, digs her grave and puts her in it and covers her is heartbraking and devastating, compounded by the end credits scene, as Amy and Megan talk about their future plans.

It’s the last part of the film that give the film its reputation, but the film does make some interesting points too. During a news broadcast about Megan’s disappearance, because she is a young, white teen she dominates the news, then almost as an afterthought, the news mentions a boy has gone missing. Goi himself in an interview mentioned that’s why he cast two young white female teens in the leads, for this very reason. We see a reenactment of Megan’s disappearance that heightens the drama in contrast to how almost mundane the actual event was, showing how TV can exaggerate things, even serious situations.

Where the film is less successful is in the first half of the film. There’s a party scene, where Megan takes Amy that goes on way longer than it needs to. I can see the point it was trying to make, showing Megan’s wilder side as a party girl, but what it does do is make you question, to a degree, why they are friends. Megan is very popular, while Amy is more shy and reserved. On the surface, them being friends does seem odd. When Megan goes missing, her other friends turn on Amy. When Amy goes missing, while they are still looking for Megan, her friends don’t even mention Amy.

But looked at deeper, Megan is envious of Amy’s more stable home life and I think knows that Amy is a much better friend than the others in her life. Amy in contrast, seems to have no other friends apart from Megan and relies on it for her social life. It’s also significant that when Megan makes contact with ‘Josh’ online, it is Amy she tells about it. And when she does go missing, it is Amy who seems the most concerned.

The interactions with ‘Josh’ are well done too. I think the film captures well how he manipulates Megan, getting her to trust him, even after she is stood up, getting her to meet him alone in a secluded location. It may not be subtle, but it is effective. When Amy looks into Megan’s disappearance, she too has interactions with him, but while at first he tries to be the same as he was with Megan, as Amy begins to suspect he is involved, he becomes more threatening.

It’s here that Goi stages a clever little moment, where Amy goes to a place to film a video of herself, while in the background, we see someone watches. It’s a creepy little moment, that will lead into the events of the final act.

As a film then, there are good things in there. The performances aren’t too bad, the story is a good one and as I said, if it wasn’t for the last part of the film, it would be likely be just another film in the found footage genre.

But it does have that last act. And now users on Tik Tok have found it. Again, why now? Doing a search online, I can’t find anything suggesting who was the first person to watch, using Tik Tok, or why, but a number of users have watched the film and have been shocked and horrified by what they have seen.

In one way, I can understand it on some levels. Goi intended the film to be a warning to the dangers online and even despite the years since it was made, with all the different social media apps to come along since, there will be predators online preying on those who let their guard down and it is the turn of the latest generation, through Tik Tok, to learn those dangers.

But is Megan Is Missing a good film? Or is it a nasty, unpleasant one? I think the verdict is somewhere in the middle. Like other films, it’s not as explicit as you may think, though there is no question it is disturbing. But it’s first half does have the weaknesses any number of found footage films have.

But there is no question it is a film that has power. Some critics find the film vile, repugnant and terrible. I would disagree with that assessment. Like Hounds Of Love (a film I keep coming back to more that I would like!) Megan Is Missing disturbs and lingers long after its credits.

Is it a film that I would recommend? No. This is a film that anyone wanting to watch should choose to decide to watch on their own. But those who want to watch a powerful cautionary tale about online dangers could do worse.

You certainly won’t forget it.