Post by StevePulaski on Jun 27, 2017 12:52:15 GMT -5
Megan is Missing (2011)
Directed by: Michael Goi
Directed by: Michael Goi
Rachel Quinn in Megan is Missing.
Rating: ★★
Through all its poor pacing, plotless meandering, and moments of seriously questionable acting, Megan is Missing - a no-budget "found footage" horror film that gained notoriety this decade thanks to Netflix - is laudable for its desire to tell a realistic story about two young girls who go missing. Despite inconsistencies, its final twenty minutes are not characterized by cheap pathos, but rather harrowing moments of peril and helplessness I did not expect. For a film this unassuming, to devote a ten-minute long stretch of the film's climax to a particularly troubling moment is commendable.
Based loosely on the disappearance and subsequent murders of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis, two young Oregon girls, the film tells the story of Megan Stewart and Amy Herman. Megan and Amy are both tween best friends who attend the same school, Megan serving as one of the school's most popular girls, while Amy, since they met, is stuck constantly living in her shadow as being a simpler, straight-edge young woman. The two are shown communicating largely through webcam phone-calls and home-video footage shot on Amy's new video camera. One particularly lengthy sequence shows the girls talking on their webcams as Megan goes into great detail about the first time she ever gave a fellatio. The realism in those moments is as authentic as the awkwardness.
Megan eventually begins chatting with Josh, a disembodied voice that hides behind a black-webcam screen and a generic "skaterdude" username. Josh chats with Megan and, unlike her mother, who nags her with demands and makes her relish the thought of running away from home, makes her feel wanted and beautiful. His story gets lost in its own details, but that's of no concern to Megan, who even gives Josh the benefit of the doubt when he stands her up at a party but somehow recalls every detail of her clothing. Amy is the only one who really knows about Megan's online relationship with Josh, with makes things harsher on her when Megan goes missing the day she told her friend that she would finally meet Josh in person.
As the police investigate Megan's disappearance, Amy reveals Megan's relationship with Josh. Josh, who continues to decry his own innocence online, belittles a visibly shaken and insecure Amy, who is thrust into the limelight and disgraced by Megan's friends, all of whom simply want their friend home safe.
Megan and Amy are played by amateur young actresses Rachel Quinn and Amber Perkins and immensely show their inexperience. They aren't bad actresses, but they are noticeably new, which means it takes many moments of discomfort and nervousness on behalf of their characters in order for them to believably accentuate their feelings. Quite often, Quinn shines here, playing the role of a simultaneously confident yet vulnerable young girl, whereas Perkins gets a tougher but at times more sincere role of letting her emotions become louder.
This is crucial during that aforementioned final act, which is made so harrowing thanks to Perkins, who assumes centerstage and realizes her character's peril, ironically through the way of a disembodied voice like Josh.
Assembled from the odds and ends of the girls' video cameras and stray news briefings and reenactments, Megan is Missing, unlike other found footage films such as Paranormal Activity and Phoenix Forgotten, doesn't give the impression of being real. Its scripted scenarios and dialog are evident, its presentation - especially during the news clips - appears very artificial, and the aesthetic screams use due to budgetary constraints rather than artistic choices.
But what Megan is Missing is not is a Lifetime movie filled with uplifting cliches and themes that victim-blame. It works, for the most part, during its final twenty minutes because it gets to the heart of the situation, which is that two young girls have disappeared as a result of their desire to be accepted and appreciated outweighing their judgment of the risks inherent to what they were doing - not recklessness and stupidity. When Megan goes missing, Amy seems even more lost and lonely than normal, clinging to her stuffed teddy bear like a toddler - which she will do again late in the film - to remind herself, and the audience, that she is still innocent and there's something in the world that will be there for her at all times.
If Megan is Missing was a short film assembled of its final twenty minutes, I would absolute recommend it, as probably evident by me prolifically dancing around its contents. Its statically filmed but very effective showcase of both desperation and unbridled evil do a great job in effectively spitting in the face of films that paint stories about missing children such a one-dimensional fashion. Having said that, issues with pacing (which mainly comes in the form of two specific photographs shown in the film way before they should've) have this film operating without a real plot or genre for far too long, and, once again, the acting leaves some of the more dramatic moments a lot to be desired and realized.
There's a reason Megan is Missing gained a lot of popularity and hits thanks to Netflix and it's not solely because of accessibility. It has more to do with the film being geared exactly for textbook Netflix users, not super-far away from the ages of Megan and Amy, on a platform that filters and recommends you potential movies to watch rather than sells you them. Megan is Missing isn't a good movie, but it's one of the most ambitious mediocre films you're likely to see.
Starring: Rachel Quinn, Amber Perkins, Dean Waite, Jael Elizabeth Steinmeyer, and Kara Wang. Directed by: Michael Goi.