This movie has blown up on social media lately. It’s been traumatising people on TikTok and I saw it trending on Twitter at one point.
The movie itself isn’t anything special, or so I thought when I saw it back in 2010, it’s supposed to serve as a warning for teenagers of the dangers of talking to strangers online, but the last 20 minutes of the movie are shocking for the wrong reasons.
This is the darkest post I’ve written and has a lot of triggers. So please don’t read on if r@pe, sexual assault, abduction and abuse in general are triggering for you.
As I mentioned at the start of the post, this movie is supposed to serve as a warning to watch could potentially happen if you meet up with a person you’ve met online without taking precautions.
The movie is usually shot from the perspective of handheld cameras, it swaps to webcam when Megan and Josh communicate and news reports once the girls have gone missing.
Megan is infatuated with Josh and ignores the obvious red flags, the usual spiel “my camera is broken”, then leaves to meet up with him.
They agree to meet behind a local diner, this is obviously another red flag, you should always meet new people within a public setting.
From this point on, this is where it becomes problematic.
Amy is making a video diary, as she had been throughout the movie, you get to see the cold hostility that people show her, for no warranted reason.
She is harmless and an innocent girl who is afraid to grow up.
She films in a spot where her and Megan would often visit together, she also hides her childhood stuffed toy here, you can see in the background of the footage that “Josh” is watching her.
Why is Josh watching her? She spoke to the police about him. This always baffled me, wouldn’t taking another girl draw more attention to yourself?
Any message that the movie the movie was trying to send is thrown out the window from this point onwards.
The movie shows grotesque photos of Megan being tortured, the kidnapper now has Amy’s camera and you see the utter depravity he inflicts on her.
What do we as an audience gain from watching this?
This could’ve been handled in a more tactful manner.
The footage is only there for shock value and it works, but the message is now overshadowed by the horrible scenes and is lost.
It can also be triggering for victims of abuse and potentially traumatise young people who jump on the trend of watching this.
Avoid this movie for it’s triggering content.
It isn’t worth the trauma.
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Life Through My Lenses 