Society is broken…

 

I’m not writing much. It’s not because I don’t have time. I have unlimited time. I have no inspiration.

Last night I was heartbroken because, the highlight of my week, is my newest online shopping purchase. It’s a hard life away from all of the people you love.

Sam and I had a great stretch off together. His back was acting up post trip, so he ended up taking off his night shifts. He was only supposed to be off 3 days, ut with the nightshifts I ended up getting him for a full 6 🙂

He starts a 9 day stretch today. 6 days and 3 nights.

My finger tattoo is still healing, so my left hand movement and accessibility is still limited. 

Saturday night Sam stayed home from work, we had a nice dinner, and popped popcorn and set up for a movie.

This is what I always looked forward to in a grown up relationship. The cuddling up with a big bowl of popcorn and watching a movie on a Saturday night.

Well, we picked the wrong movie.

I heard about it online, and I looked up the IMDB listing it as Drama/Horror… which I must’ve confused with Drama/Thriller.

I am not a Horror movie buff at all. Gratuitous violence is not my bag. Senseless brutality? No thanks, I see enough of that in Documentaries.

I don’t know that a true horror movie buff would classify this film as a Horror movie. It’s really the story that’s terrifying, and the last 20 minutes. It’s graphic. But not bloody. I guess you’d have to see it…

On that note… I can’t stress this enough. Do not watch this movie if you’re a parent. Especially if you have a teenage daughter, or any daughter for that matter.  This entry is going to ruin the movie. So if you want to see it. Watch it before you read this, it’s called ‘Megan is Missing’.

Before I ruin this movies, I’m going to regale you with a tale of a bar outing I went to with friends.

My friend has an uncle who works Internet Child predator division of the RCMP. We had drinks with him and a few of his colleagues. 
With my two friends, myself and the RCMP boys, we were about 12.

The older I get the more I learn, thats the way life works right?

Anyhow… My buddy’s uncle works in the division that tracks and catches predators that victimize or target children, 0-6 months.

You read that right.. and yes I asked him to repeat it. Of course he can’t give any incriminating details, but he did tell us there is a community of predators online that trade/buy/sell within each other. 

Predators can be parents. Parents who sell their child or images of their child also. Of course, it never occured to me, that 0-6 months was a target for any kind of predator. 

I learned a lot about the dangers of the internet, and I decided, and announced to the table that I was not going to have kids. 

But, he said to me "Children are the greatest gift you can have. They give your life meaning, and teach you to love in a way you didn’t know you were capable. But, in this age, there is no such thing as being too over protective."

This is a man, who has been privy to atrocious information, about how children are victimized. Unreal stories you wouldn’t believe, and you shouldn’t ever need to hear. Because let me just say, if a target victim is 0-6months, it’s extremely rare that the parents or a parent/guardian isn’t involved. It scared me to death, learning what I learned from them, and Megan is Missing is a very real account of the dangers they told us existed on the internet.

He was right when he said, times have changed, and although it still happens… it’s not as easy to snatch a kid on the street and run. With stranger danger being taught by parents and in schools, predators are taking to the internet to lure children.

If I wasn’t already terrified to have children, I am more so now. Maybe it’s my mindset. Maybe I’m looking for an out. I don’t know.

So, for starters. I had the name "Megan is Missing", on my list of movies to watch. My list has it classified as a Crime Drama Thriller. My usual favourite genre of film (when done well).

So I read to Sam what it was about. 14 year old Megan and her best friend Amy meet an online predator, and disappear within three weeks of each other.

Also where I read about this movie, someone noted that EVERY parent should watch this movie. I’m not sure I agree.

So what I thought it was going to be about. A usual movie style about the disappearance of two girls. Usually seen from the parents/community view.

Sort of like an episode of criminal minds. I also anticipated, I won’t call it a happy ending, but the story coming full circle.

A conclusion? I’m not sure.. I’ll come back to this if the word comes to me

What this movie really is.

It’s threaded together with "real time" footage of Megan and Amy. Taken from their cell phones and computers. It’s NOT real footage. They are actors. Let me be clear about that. I will come back to this.

The videos are taken from their computers, cell phones and a video camera Amy receives for her birthday shortly before Megan goes missing.

The movie is set in 2007, but was released in 2011. The technology (cell phone camera/video chat) is a bit of a stretch as Apple didn’t release Video chat until iPhone 4, which I believe was 2011 or 2010. I for sure don’t remember a cell phone with video chat capability in 2007, but I’m Canadian.

The style of filming is called "Found Footage". This particular story is the combination of 7 true cases which include 5 containing child abduction/murder and 2 with a focus on internet predators.

So people who are really looking for the traditional elements of a horror movie, might be bored for the beginning. The only part of the movie that isn’t a "found" video is a party the girls attend.

Megan is the popular girl, with home issues. She was molested by her step father (who was protected by her mother) and also by a camp counsellor when she was 10. Both incidents she speaks about on Video with Amy.

Amy her best friend, is a homebody. Good parents who look out for her. A bit sheltered and viewed as a loser by her peers.
Her bed is adorned with stuffed animals, and it seems her only friend is Megan.

After Megan convinces her peers to let Amy come with her to a party, (which I don’t think is a video, but it might be someone else’s video, I’m not watching this again to find out)  where this is teen promiscuity and drugs afoot, Amy gets more of an idea the lifestyle her best friend is in.

Then next morning a chipper Amy video messages a hungover Megan about standing plans they had. Megan wants to sleep in, they’ll meet up later for a movie.

A think it’s the following friday. Megan Video chats with Amy, telling her the crowd she was running with is lame she doesn’t want to go to tonights party. They hang up.

Megan gets a chat request from "Josh", a boy her friend Lexie suggested she would get along with.

Josh’s webcam is broken, he can’t video chat, but he can see Megan.

Cue the picture of a bleach blonde teenage surfer "that was found" on Megan’s hard drive of "josh".

We don’t see Josh’s face in the movie. We only hear his voice. His lame attempts at speaking the teen lingo (that I found obvious). He asks her to meet him at the party tonight. After some flirting, Megan says she’ll think about it, but he better talk to her if she shows up.

He says bye, she lays out the clothes she plans to wear on her bed, and clicks her camera off before she goes to the party.

She videos with Amy, that she’s headed to the party to meet Josh.

Luckily, he’s a no show, and an upset Megan gives him attitude when she engages in a second one way video chat. He flatters her, and tells her what she was wearing and how hot she looked. She invites him to hang out with her and Amy, but he declines and says he’d rather meet her one on one.

She video’s him from Amy’s. Asking if he wants to meet up with them, again he declines. Megan returns home and chats with Josh again, making a plan to meet him one on one.

The last we see of Megan is her grabbing her cellphone and heading out.

The movie at this point is intertwined with "real news footage" in the disappearance of Megan. Including grainy surveillance footage of her meeting with Josh (who’s face os of course not able to be seen).

Amy’s mistake. After Megan disappears,  Amy contacts Josh, knowing they had plans to meet up. He claims he waited for her, and she never showed up.

The surveillance footage is of Megan being dragged away at the spot where her and "Josh" were supposed to meet.

After some time, Amy goes to the authorities and tells them about the mysterious Josh. After this he threatens her via web chat that she needs to leave him out of it, and he doesn’t know anything. He reminds her how much he knows about her, where she lives, her family etc.

A fetish site contacts police after two shots of Megan are submitted to their website. Let’s say they are of a violent nature.

Amy, armed with her camcorder goes to her spot near the… canal? Sorry I’m not sure, it reminds me of the Rideau canal. Here she comes to be alone, and see her teddy bear, a bear her mother convinced her she was too old to keep.

In the back, looms the shadowy figure of an unidentified male, that I’m sure anyone watching can safely assume is "Josh".

The second time Amy returns to her special place, her bear is missing. A dark sleeve comes out and grabs her.

Flash to news reports of her disappearance. Another video of police finding her camera in a trash can nearby, which incudes "22 minutes of unedited footage" that was filmed after Josh abducted her.

This is the hardest part to watch. It’s all kind of hard to watch, knowing these girls are 14, often the way Megan speaks about her sexual abuse is hard to watch, for two reasons. It’s hard to hear anyone speak about hurtful things, like the heart broken look in her eyes when she speaks about her step father. But, she’s almost bragging about the incident with the camp counsellor. 

Sam had a hard time watching this, from close to the beginning. He asked me that we only have sons. If it were that easy! 

The last 22 minutes, are about Amy. She begs and pleads for him to let her go, and all we ever really hear the predator says is "stop calling me Josh, my name isn’t Josh".

The tapes includes footage of Amy’s face while she’s being raped by the predator, I’m pretty sure Sam hid under a blanket during this,

At some point, he comes back to the basement dungeon he’s holding her in, and says he’s going to take her home, but he doesn’t want her to see where he lives, so he needs her to get into a barrel drum. She eagerly accepts until he removes the lid to reveal a dead Megan inside.

This was probably the most graphic imagery in the film. The graphic images of Megan from the Fetish site, and her lifeless body in the drum were literally just split seconds… but just enough to make you look away in horror.

The film cuts, and it’s dark, with a flashlight I think, and he’s digging. The only sounds are the digging, and Amy’s pleads for him to spare her. She’ll do anything, she’ll stay forever, she’ll be good… she won’t ever go home.

Of course our predator is stone cold heartless, he tips the drum into the hole, and covers it with dirt. With every shovel of dirt, Amy’s shrieks grow quieter and quieter until there is just silence.

Up comes a Missing Child poster of each girl, and also a finishing comment about how they have yet to be found.

It’s so real. It’s so possible. It’s also true. The barrel storyline comes from Oregon, where two girls were abducted by the father of a friend after he attempted to rape one (the Megan Character), and the other went looking for her.

This is a new style of horror movie for me. The movie builds and builds, you’re waiting and waiting, and it comes all at once.

It’s also not far fetched. It’s not over done. There is no unnecessary graphic imagery. It’s all purposeful. 

Like I said, it’s not a real tape of the rape and murder of a young girl. What concerned me after the fact was that reviews for this movie were low, and people disliked it because the footage wasn’t really ‘actual’ footage, also not enough graphic imagery.

What the fuck???? 

You want to see a real human being’s rape and murder?! You want to see a real teen age girl being raped and buried alive?!

I had a hard enough time watching the fake footage. For most of the ‘video’ from Josh’s torture area on I could hardly watch. I’m haunted by the idea of that level of depravity.

I believe we watched three episode of the big bang theory after to try and erase the "fake footage" from our memories. 

What the fuck is wrong with people? Are we that desensitized to violence and human suffering?

I have to look at animal violent brutality on facebook every day from Vegan/PETA/Animal Rights activists…

Just to let you know, PETA, Pro-Lifers etc. You violent images of animals and fetuses aren’t swaying me. It’s disrespectful? Why do we only value human life enough to respect that we won’t watch video’s and look at pictures of real murders (unless that’s just me?)
I don’t want to see that… and you are just bastardizing your cause by spreading that around…

and there are people who want to see a real snuff film about the brutal rape and murder of two teenage girls?!!!!!!!!

Fuck man. Society is broken, beyond repair. 

Who will help us out of this fucking mess we call Civilization?

And don’t say God, cause if that was true AT ALL, we wouldn’t be in this sick place at all.