Thoughts on Megan is Missing

This has been rolling around in my brain in some form or another for more than a week, and I feel I need to unburden myself of it. This seems like a proper venue.

Last year, a little indie film was released. It was shot over the course of eight days for less than $40,000. The acting is often laughable. There is little by way of technical expertise to recommend it. There are no known actors in any major or minor role. And no one who has seen it will ever forget it.

I'm talking about Megan is Missing.

Let's be clear about my intentions here. I'm not sure I'm writing a review. I'm not evaluating the merits of the filmmaker's craft, though some discussion of the merits will inevitably occur. I'm trying to reason with myself. I'm trying to justify what I've seen, to analyze and deconstruct it. I'm trying to peer into the motivations of evil.

For the uninitiated, a little background. Megan is Missing is an 86-minute film in the ever-growing "found footage" genre populated almost entirely by recent horror films. It follows video documentation of several weeks in the lives of 14-year-old Megan and 13-year-old Amy. Much of the video comes from dubious sources, such as webcams during online chat and video chat over smartphones (the film is set in 2007, which calls the latter into serious question, never minding that these sources do not record as a default and would likely have never been recovered). Ignoring structural missteps (we'll be doing that a lot), the format does what it's supposed to do: it establishes a believable friendship between the two girls, and sets some basic ground rules for what's to come.

Megan is a troubled girl, having been sexually abused at a young age. Her mother fits into that singular category of terrible parent in that she attempted to protect her convict boyfriend while having full knowledge of her daughter being abused, and, subsequent to the boyfriend heading San Quentin way, blamed her daughter for, let's face it, allowing herself to be raped. The resulting teenager is unsurprising, a girl seeking to bury her guilt and pain by drinking, doing drugs, and fucking and sucking her way through middle school. Accordingly, she's one of the most popular girls in school.

Amy is diametrically opposite to her best friend, shy, virginal, openly intellectual. She has religious and devoted parents. She still sleeps with a battery of stuffed animals. She's demure and self-depricating, though this is owed less to modesty and more to actual low self-esteem.

At first blush, these two would seem unlikely friends. As someone with three younger sisters, two of whom are in their twenties, one of whom is currently 14, I can say that this kind of pairing occurs quite frequently. They're both looking for something, you see. As is reinforced by the haunting scene that plays over the end credits, both girls want to be the other. Megan wants a loving family and freedom from memories of abuse. Amy wants to be desired and wants to be popular. The girls provide important safe harbors for each other. Megan gets to be an honorary member of a healthy family unit. Amy gets to be popular by proxy.

So, to the point of the film. Many spoilers follow, and I don't care. Read it or don't. We're going to get into the nasty bits in detail.

Megan spends a good deal of time looking for reinforcement of her good looks and desirability by seeking out high school guys online that she can chat with over webcam. Eventually she is recommended to a sketchy character by the name of Josh (chat handle "Skaterdude," natch) whose own webcam is conveniently out of commission. He manages to sweet talk her in his own slightly slimy way over the course of a week or two, and, of course, arranges a meeting with her from which she never returns.

Over the course of the next three weeks, Amy provides some key information to police about Josh's online courtship of Megan and, as happens sometimes, her cover is blown by a Nancy Grace style crime show. This results in Josh threatening Amy. Amy is stalked, and, after making a particularly stupid decision (very common in this film), is abducted.

Before the film veers into the Abyss, we are treated to a prelude. Title cards appear on the screen, informing the viewer that two pictures submitted anonymously to a fetish porn website were turned over to the FBI. They are of Megan. She is nearly naked, emaciated, locked in a pillory, her head and hands protruding from the top of a plywood table. Hooks have been inserted into her nose, connected to a strap of plastic or leather, fastened to a buckle behind her head. Her mouth is forced wide open by metal wire guards. Her eyes are wild. A trail of blood trickles from her supine nostril. The effect is arresting and immediate. Having just been witness to Amy's abduction, it's clear we have a rough road ahead.

A short scene documenting the media's reaction to Amy's disappearance follows. Contrary to the majority of commenters, I found the crime channel footage to be effective. Yes, it was poorly done. Yes, the acting is terrible. That having been said, watch Nancy Grace on HLN for ten minutes and tell me you don't get the same creepy, morally bankrupt vibe. It is opined, without any evidence, that maybe the girls have run away together. I think this is important. It says something about society's view of teenage girls. When Megan fist disappears, the media goes ape displaying pictures and launching into heavy-handed paeans about her virtues. However, look at the way the reaction spreads. Megan was 'that kind of girl," the kind that is asking for it. There is a pervasive sense from the adults involved that Amy is not really in danger because she's "not that kind of girl." In essence, the media suggesting that the girls ran away together is both a coping mechanism against the Occam's Razor dread of their actual fates, and a subtle insinuation that Megan has turned Amy into "that kind of girl."

Okay. To the pièce de la résistance, the infamous final 22 minutes.

I'd like to take this moment, before we enter the basement, to offer my opinion as to the intentions of this film. Much has been made, by both the filmmakers and the actors, of the preventative qualities of Megan is Missing. It's a warning, they say. In fact, in cast interviews, the answer to the question, "What is this film about?" is met with near identical responses. It sounds canned. It sounds rehearsed. It sounds like something they're supposed to say. So, let me disabuse these notions. Megan is Missing exists to facilitate the final 22 minutes. It is as much a warning against the dangers of online predators as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a warning against home invasions. The knee-jerk reaction to this analysis is to conclude that if there isn't some higher meaning, if there isn't some blatant social value, then the things we see in the final 22 minutes must be exploitation. It must be torture porn, and therefore not of any value in and of itself. I reject that analysis. There is something to be learned from the closing scenes, but it has nothing to do with the internet. In addition, these scenes are frighteningly effective. No additional justification should be required.

I'm going to proceed with a description of the final scenes, burned as they are into my memory, before attempting analysis of the real subject: Josh, our friendly neighborhood hebephile. I'm going to write in detail, because if you're curious, but are too squeamish to watch, reading about it is far preferable to seeing it.

The title card informs the viewer that the following is the final 22 minutes of tape recorded by Amy's camcorder. Josh is filming. He is careful, throughout the rest of the action, never to reveal his face or any other identifying marks. The scene is an old cellar with odd vaulted arches, which lend even more of a dungeon feel to the place. Amy can be heard screaming in the dark, shouting for help. A dim flashlight lights the way. The camera pans slowly past a blue barrel. Amy's hands and face are pressed against a small barred window in a sturdy metal door. As Josh approaches, she recoils. Josh removes the lock, which is not a standard pin or padlock, but an antler or bone of some kind. He opens the door and sets the camera on the ground. An iron collar is affixed to Amy's neck, a long chain extending from it to the wall. She is dressed only in her underwear. Josh tells her to shut up. Amy continues to shout. She demands to be set free. She demands to see Megan. Josh tells her she can see her friend, but only when he decides. She again demands to be set free. His footsteps can be heard moving away. She continues to call him Josh, though he has told her several times that it isn't his name. He comes back into frame suddenly and douses her with a bucket of cold water. He says, "My name's not Josh, bitch." She calls him crazy. He closes and locks the door, walks past the blue barrel and the disassembled table from the previous photos, and the camera cuts out.

The camera turns back on. Josh peers into the cell through the barred window. Amy is curled in the fetal position against the wall. He wakes her. She immediately withdraws into a defensive position and begins pleading again to be set free. Her tone is less defiant. She has begun to beg. Josh places a dog dish of food (what it is is totally unclear) in front of her and tells her she has to eat to stay healthy. She begins to pick up the food with her hands. He objects. She is to eat using only her mouth. She initially refuses. Josh takes the camera with him to another room in the cellar. There is stashed Amy's prized teddy bear, stolen by Josh prior to the abduction. He returns to the cell and taunts her with it. She eats the food with her hands behind her back, sniffling and gulping. As promised, Josh gives her the teddy bear. She hugs it tightly and crawls back to the corner, sobbing. Josh backs out of the cell, locks the door, passes the barrel, and shuts off the camera.

The camera turns back on. It has been placed on the pillory where Megan was once a prisoner. The cell door can be heard screeching open. Amy can be heard asking what's going on, whether she's going home. Josh says nothing. Amy's face enters the frame, Josh's hand pressing it down on the table top. She begins to scream frantically. Out of frame, Josh has begun to rape her. Her cries are a mix of pain and humiliation. Soon, she stops screaming. Her eyes glaze. Josh's grunts and faint slapping are all that is heard. Without warning, Josh's hand palms onto the table top next to Amy's face. It is smeared with fresh, red blood. Josh can be heard climaxing. When he is finished, he pulls Amy away from the camera. She makes no sound of protest. The sound of the cell door closing can be heard. A few seconds later, Josh returns and shuts off the camera.

The camera turns back on. Josh walks the familiar path past the blue barrel to the cell door. The view through the bars reveals Amy, who is no longer cowering. She is asleep sitting up. He opens the door, sets the camera down and squats next to her. He wakes her gently. She instantly recoils, but is too exhausted to move. She asks what he is doing. He tells her not to be afraid while unlocking her collar. She asks, now hopefully, if she's going home. He asks her if she'd like to see her parents again. She nods enthusiastically. He asks her if she'd like to see Megan again. She again nods. He helps her up. She clutches her teddy bear. He leads her to the barrel and explains that he needs her to get inside so he can transport her out of the house without her knowing where he lives. She agrees warily. He opens the barrel and points the camera inside. Megan's dead body, half-putrefied, is slumped in the barrel, waist deep in water. Her skin is blue-white, her eyes without pigment, her upturned face caught in a twisted slack-jawed grimace. Amy screams and tries to run. Josh drops the camera. A struggle is heard off camera. Soon, the screams become muffled. Hollow pounding on metal accompanies Amy's cries. Josh picks up the camera and focuses on the barrel for a few seconds. It can be seen rocking back and forth as Amy struggles within. The camera shuts off.

The camera turns back on. Our view is of the barrel in extreme foreground. Josh's feet can be seen. Leaves cover the ground and trees can be seen. He has a shovel. He begins digging. Amy's voice, now soft and quavering, can be heard. She is pleading for her life. She tells Josh she loves him, that she will care for him like no one else, that she'll be the best wife or girlfriend he could ever want. He keeps digging. Amy can be heard intermittently coughing and vomiting in the barrel. She tells Josh she knows he can hear her, and asks repeatedly what he wants her to do. She begins sobbing and says that she doesn't want to die. He keeps digging. She tells Josh that he's the master, the king. He can do anything to her, she says. She promises she'll never ask for her teddy bear again. She says that she'll never see her parents again, and she'll be good and stay in her cell. He keeps digging. She starts asking him just to open the top of the barrel, not even to let her out, just to open it once. He stops digging. Amy's breath speeds. Josh moves behind the barrel and strats moving it toward the hole. Amy's resolve breaks. She begins screaming frantically for help. He kicks the barrel onto its side in the hole. Amy keeps screaming, shouting, "I'm gonna die!" Josh begins shoveling dirt onto the barrel. Amy's struggle becomes very violent within the barrel. She screams and screams. He keeps shoveling, grunting in a way that sounds far too much like his grunts while raping her. Gradually, as the dirt covers the barrel, Amy's cries become more muffled, fading, fading, until there's nothing but the sound of the shovel and Josh's heavy breathing. He finishes smoothing the ground, and becomes very quiet, listening. No sound is heard. He makes his way out of the woods. The morning sun is about an hour from rising. As he hikes out of the forest, he stops, scans the tree line with his flashlight, waits a moment, then continues. After a few seconds, the camera shuts off, this time for good.

Okay. Breathe.

I've written this down because, frankly, I'm still not sure what to do with it. It is a collection of scenes that effectively swallows all hope. It is, without a doubt, the most stark, bleak, nihilistic ending I have ever seen put to film. It made me think very hard, not about the dangers of internet chat rooms, but about the pathology that would drive a man to do something so vile. I read about serial killers. I looked into the actual cases that inspired the ending (none were quite so awful; this was a composite of several crimes). Men abducting girls, raping them, killing them, burying their bodies. Men abducting girls from their own homes, hiding them, raping them, dismembering them. Men abducting young children, raping them, burying them alive in garbage bags. It happens. It is not an abstract concept. These things occur.

It's because of this that I find an analysis of Michael Goi's film as a simple warning to be insufficient. It is a commentary on evil. It is a reminder that when an evil man chooses to lay waste to innocent lives, he can do it and escape punishment. The final 22 minutes of Megan is Missing do not gleefully depict torture or death. They serve to show how pointless and banal it is. They exist to provide a window into the mundanity of evil.

If I had to guess, I'd say that Megan was Josh's first kill. A few things suggest this. First, the photos. Josh was clearly proud of his work; the pillory and headgear were obviously items of his own construction. He wanted to show off. He was careless. Many killers are the first time. Second, all signs point to him having kept Megan in the basement for a lot longer than he kept Amy. I'd guess this primarily because Megan's body, while in bad shape once we see her in the barrel, had not yet advanced beyond putrefaction to decomposition. This suggests that Megan had probably been in the barrel no longer than a week. If one assumes that he kept Amy in the basement for about four or five days, and Megan was missing for three weeks prior to that, well, do the math. Additionally, Megan appeared to have been the victim of slow starvation in the second photo.

It would be wrong to assume that Josh abducted the girls to satisfy his sexual desire. It certainly is a factor. He raped Amy, and likely raped Megan multiple times. However, his actions do not suggest a man motivated by lust. If that were the case, he would have abducted the girls, raped them, and killed them almost immediately. Since the evidence suggests he kept Megan for weeks, this is not a sufficient explanation. Amy herself actually stumbles upon Josh's true motivation while she is pleading fer her life within the barrel. She calls him master and king. She cedes the power to him. She admits that he is supreme. Her suspicions are correct. Power is Josh's motivation. What he does to Amy he does because he can. Amy's pleas speak to this compulsion, to his desire to impose his will. But she's just a young girl. She doesn't understand that by burying her alive, he is exercising the ultimate power over her body. She will die in darkness and terror. She cannot escape. He has done this. If not for him, it would not be. This is why Josh is excruciatingly silent during the entire 12-minute digging scene. Nothing she could ever say would dissuade him from completing his task. He kills her because it is possible to do so. He does it in the most awful way imaginable because he can, and because she is powerless to stop him. This is the truly frightening aspect of this film that cannot be easily articulated. It is not that Amy dies, or that Megan shares her awful tomb, it's that it was preventable, and the actions of one man made it inevitable.

It is when we lose all control that the Abyss seeks to swallow us. Amy's time in Josh's custody pulls back the curtain and removes the illusion of barriers and control. It exposes the raw, reasonless fear that exists within all of us: the knowledge that, despite all our attempts at civility and safety, the actions of one amoral individual can lay our worlds low, bring us to heel, and break us.

That's all I have to say. I feel somewhat relieved of the heavy dread that had settled on me. There's just one, horribly practical issue I have with the final 22 minutes, and, if Michael Goi stumbles across this lonely corner of the internet, I'd really like to know:

HOW THE FUCK DID JOSH GET THAT BARREL INTO THE WOODS, LET ALONE OUT OF THE BASEMENT? I mean, it's got to be a 40 to 45 pound drum on its own, with about 20 to 25 gallons of water in it, not to mention the bodies of two teenage girls. Now, with my math hat on, let's see here. Let's assume 20 gallons of water, just to be generous. At 8.34 pounds a gallon, that's 166.8 pounds of water. Now, let's assume that the girls weigh about 100 pounds apiece (again, being generous). That brings us to 367 pounds. Add to that the weight of a metal drum, let's be generous and say it comes to 35-ish pounds. That, ladies and gents comes to FOUR HUNDRED POUNDS. So, either Josh is a super-villain with freakish strength, or he spent hours and hours pushing that damn thing to some kind of dumbwaiter, out of the cellar, across a field, and into the woods, all while Amy was kicking and screaming and coughing and crying and banging her fists inside.

So, forget about the realism of the first hour. This is the real mind bender. What about it, Mr. Goi? I'd really like to hear this one.

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