This Found Footage Film Has The Most Shocking Ending In Horror
I’m what you’d call a glutton for punishment when it comes to horror movies. I love the saddest and most depraved things you can find. Yes, I love a good fun horror movie. But really, I love my horror content to be deeply upsetting and affecting. The Treatment, Martyrs, Human Centipede: if it has a nasty reputation, I’ll probably watch it (I do have limits, shockingly enough). That’s why I first searched for the controversial found footage movie Megan Is Missing at the age of 18. Now, 11 years and two more viewings later, I stand by my claim that it contains the most shocking and disturbing ending of a horror movie I’ve ever seen.
Megan is Missing has garnered quite a reputation since its release for its shocking content, especially in its final 20 minutes. The film even made the TikTok rounds in 2020 as younger audiences discovered its existence and filmed themselves reacting to its contents. While it may be easy to brush off a TikTok trend, these creators aren’t wrong in their reactions to its final act. It’s truly one of the most upsetting moments in horror movie history.
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Megan Is Missing, directed by Michael Goi, is a cautionary tale about the dangers of strangers on the internet. Megan is a 14-year-old girl who loves to party and has experienced a tremendous amount of trauma in her young life. Amy is her best friend, a much quieter girl who is made fun of for being a virgin. The two have an unusual, yet endearing friendship that’s shown through video chats, cell phone videos, and footage captured on Amy’s new video camera. But when Megan meets a new guy online named Josh, their lives quickly take a violent turn. What begins as a borderline after-school special about teens and drugs becomes a hellish look at digital stranger danger as both Megan and Amy are kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by a sadistic serial killer.
Filmed in 2006 but not released until 2011, Goi is testing the second-screen horror waters, playing with the multimedia presentation of footage and creating a rough template for what films like Hell House LLC and Unfriended would be. But he is much more brutal with his execution as he forces the viewer to occupy the subject position of the killer as he films his seemingly unending torture of a 13-year-old girl.
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The words Photo #1 mark the beginning of the end of Megan is Missing as we’re shown two photos of a battered and tortured Megan shared on a fetish website. These two images, which caused an 18-year-old me to slam my laptop shut in utter disgust, are when Goi shows he isn’t playing around here. Shortly after these images linger on the screen, Amy is kidnapped on camera and the real sadism begins. Now, the camera is no longer in the hands of a child; it’s in the hands of a killer who sees filming her as a fun little experiment.
First we’re shown him humiliating Amy dressed in nothing but her bra and underwear, forcing her to eat out of a bowl like a dog. Then, he films himself brutally raping her in a three-minute-long unedited scene that feels like it’ll never stop. In the long take, we only see Amy’s screaming face as she begs for mercy. At the last second, we see his bloody hand slam on a table, a disgusting image to punctuate an already horrific moment.
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And yet, somehow those moments, along with the reveal of Megan’s dead body in a barrel, can’t compare with the final agonizing ten-minute-long take where Amy begs for her life. The camera is placed haphazardly on the ground seemingly without a focus. But on the left, we see the bottom of a blue barrel. In the rest of the frame, we see the killer’s torso and arms moving in and out of the shot as he digs a hole. Inside the barrel is Amy, but we only hear her voice. In fact, that’s all we hear for the duration of the shot, with the exception of the sound of the shovel scraping against the dirt. And what we hear will make you want to scream, cry, and throw up.
At first, Amy begs for her life, telling the killer that he doesn’t have to do this, she won’t tell anyone, the usual. Then, as she tires out and begins to lose her breath, she whispers that she’ll be the best girlfriend and the best wife he’ll ever have. She makes heart-breaking promises about how well she’ll treat him if he just lets her go. And all the while, he’s silently digging a hole. A hole meant for a still-alive Amy. As the killer pushes the barrel into the hole, Amy screams for her life and the camera doesn’t cut away as she is buried alive. Her screams reverberate through your skull and make you wish you could bleach your brain.
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This moment will have you thinking two things. One, “wow ten minutes truly is a long time”. And two, “why did Goi think I needed to see this?” Truly, you really don’t need to see it. I sometimes wish I hadn’t! And perhaps that’s Goi’s goal. Obviously he wanted to shock to make prove something about the dangers of the internet. But at what point does it become exploitation? At what point do we question the intentions of the unrelenting torture of teenage girls in the name of education?
With Megan Is Missing, I don’t think there’s an easy answer. I change my mind with every watch as I try to navigate the questionable ethics of this seminal found footage horror film. But one thing’s for sure, this is an ending that will never leave your mind. As much as you want it to, the sounds and images from these final minutes will be a part of you forever. Consider yourself warned.
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