Content warning: This movie contains scenes of sexual assault, kidnapping, extreme aggression and gore.

“Megan is Missing,” a 2011 drama and horror film based on a true story and directed by Michael Goi, has recently taken the internet by storm after going viral on social media platform TikTok.

The movie, starring actresses Rachel Quinn and Amber Perkins taking on the roles of teenage girls Megan Stewart and Amy Herman, has left viewers distressed after learning the dangers of talking to strangers and catfishing.

“I was completely traumatized [after watching the movie], and I now understand why people said it was scarring,” junior Natalie Ho said. “The fact that things like this are happening every day to so many girls out there is pure evil, and the thought about it happening to someone I love terrifies me.”

The movie showcases the reality of vulnerability and the evil events that lead to child grooming, but somehow the first 40 minutes of the film were atrocious. From just the opening scene at a diner filmed with a low-quality video camera that introduced Megan and Amy, We could tell how mediocre the acting and cinematography were going to be; the actors had no idea how to act like normal teenagers, and it was extremely cheesy. 

“I don’t think the movie accurately portrayed the events that happened,” sophomore Josh Jung said. “It was really hard to follow everything because it was so slow-paced and a little bit boring.”

The film did not meet our expectations of what we believed would be a realistic depiction of a horror movie based on a true story.  Even with the horrendous acting in the beginning to the climax, once the movie approached its last 15 minutes, we do not think anyone focused on how bad the acting was, and rather focused on how realistic the assault looked; we all just sat there, with our hands covering our mouths and heads turned from the screen.

As a whole, the movie had horrible acting, even worse dialogue, cheap cinematography and a long and boring plot, but gruesome and sensitive content displayed in the film conveys an unforgettable message of “stranger danger” that stayed in peoples heads. It is most likely that people are not going to watch it more than once.

As technology advances and the use of social media grows, it is important to acknowledge the dangers of making your personal information publicly available. ‘Megan is Missing’ portrays only a few of the possible consequences of not practicing safety online.