Amy Herman is a shy and introverted 13-year-old girl. Her best friend, Megan, is the complete opposite, as she has a sex appeal that attracts boys. The two friends spend their time chatting on the internet and can see each other all the time thanks to their webcams. Megan meets Josh on the chat. This last one does not have a webcam but according to the photo he sent, he is a young skateboarder of 17 years with a rather attractive physique. A short time later, Megan disappears. Search notices are sent. Amy contacts Josh to know if he has news of Megan. The problem is that Josh is not called Josh and he is not 17 years old…
Michael Goi had a very specific idea in mind when he directed Megan is missing. To make teenagers aware, BUT especially their parents, that the Internet and more particularly the chat with strangers represent a real danger for teenagers without real reference points who are just looking for a friendship that they don’t necessarily have in real life. The web has become a real breeding ground for perverts and psychopaths who are ready to do anything to chat with young girls, even if it means pretending to be a young blond boy with the same interests as them. Sexual predators have in their hands a powerful weapon that allows them to act incognito. And sometimes to act on it.
Megan is missing is presented as a “found footage”, that is to say that it is a sequence of images from the video diaries of Amy and Megan, supposed to represent reality. The first part of the film makes us get acquainted with the two teenagers through their friendship, their conversation via internet, their secrets, the evenings they spend together. Nothing really interesting, we just have to deal with scenes of everyday life but we quickly get fond of the two heroines, superbly played by Amber Perkins (Amy) and Rachel Quinn (Megan) and the “amateur camera” side actually brings credibility to the whole. When the conversations with Josh arrive, the camera puts us in the position of voyeur, we have the dirty impression to be Josh himself and to see through his eyes. An unhealthy atmosphere starts to appear because unconsciously, without even having read the summary of the film, we feel that there is something fishy.
From the moment Megan disappears, the film continues to turn into a nightmare and we think that we would not like our child to be in the place of the two friends. The diffusion of two shocking photos of Megan, supposedly sent to the FBI by the webmaster of an S&M site having found a resemblance with Megan’s portrait, makes the horrific potential of the situation go up a notch and the uneasiness settles comfortably in the spectator. Two short nightmarish visions that leave a lasting impression on the mind. And when little Amy is also kidnapped, Megan is missing becomes a real electroshock that will make more than one parent think…
We then witness 22 very intense final minutes in which we follow the ordeal of poor Amy caught in the trap of the sexual predator. The director does not play the card of the gore overkill nor of the visual horror. He just shows a more than real situation in a cold, clinical way, almost in real time. A situation that quickly becomes unbearable for the spectator who has children, putting himself in the position of victim, imagining his own child in Amy’s place (the scene of the barrel might keep you awake for a while). A situation that has already made the headlines in several news stories. And it can happen again at any time. I won’t tell you more, but these 22 minutes will leave you with a pasty mouth and sweaty hands for sure. Michael Goi has succeeded in his mission: to alert and make people aware that it is imperative to monitor what our children are doing on the net and that their “so-called” friends that they only know through chat rooms may not be what they claim to be. If Megan is missing is not exempt from some length and clumsiness, it is still a film of public utility that does not leave you indifferent. Disturbing.
