Megan Is Missing
Being lazy here, I just copy paste my review from Letterboxd.
Turns out that I am clearly in the minority there for liking this flick. Lol.
Wether or not you should take this as a life lesson (or a PSA), is irrelevant to me. Storytellingwise, I thought it was well done.
Amy as the girl with the heart of gold, whose rebellious side comes in hanging on to Billy Bear. Which finally becomes her undoing.
Megan as the girl with the traumatic past, rough around the edges, but a layer of kindness underneath all that.
"Josh" first sweettalking Megan and then revealing his character to Amy.
The film follows the three act mode. The first part (including the party scene) sets up the characters and the mischief they can get themselves into. Which, again, is not too badly done. You may hate some of the stuff that you see and that's fine, but the idea of an abused girl ending up with an abusive boyfriend is not that far fetched. If you think about it, up until then, Megan Is Missing could easily go in the same category as Kids.
The second part (until Megan's disappearance), sets up the girls and their friendship. How, behind all the tough talk and high jinks, they are still children, naive enough to be lured in by this "Josh" character.
Then, after Megan disappears, the movie gets scary and that's what stuck with me. The tone shift in Josh during his conversation with Amy is not surprising. But then it goes south fast. The shot of Josh behind Amy as she is holding on to her teddy is scary as hell, as well as the shot of Amy getting captured. And the 22 last minutes are very disturbing, culminating in a shocking rape scene where everything is done to make sure it's as hurtful and traumatizing as you can imagine.
I am piggybacking a bit on the burial scene. One moment, it drags on and you want things to move along (ok, ok, we get it), the other you tend to think that it's supposed to drag in order to emphasize how Amy pleads for her life and how Josh remains callous to her pleas. Which reminds me of Creep and the shot of all the tapes at the end. Megan Is Missing does not need that. His methodicalness and his callousness to Amy is enough proof of how this is not the first time for him and probably not the last.
Did it live up to the expectations? Yes, because it was scary. Was it good? Interesting and intriguing are better words. Would I recommend this to anyone and if so, who? Not many people, that's for sure. It's budget, themes and ending relegate it to cult status. Only for experienced horror fans and general weirdoes.