Why Megan Is Missing Feels Wrong: POV, Empathy, and Funny Games

Megan Is Missing's exploitative feeling isn’t just its subject matter. The movie is basically designed to be gross, and this video tries to show that by looking at camera placement, POV, and structural alignment. Megan Is Missing aligns the audience with the villains and misdirects empathy. I contrast that structure with Funny Games, a movie that also makes the audience feel responsible for the movie's events. There are some other counterexamples investigated at the end, to form a kind of empathy direction toolkit. Resources: RAINN – rainn.org - 1-800-656-4673 (Hotline) Childhelp – childhelphotline.org - 1- 800-422-4453 (Hotline) NCMEC – missingkids.org Thorn – thorn.org ECPAT - ecpat.org Internet Watch Foundation - iwf.org.uk Goodreads: goodreads.com/branomander Music: Southern Gothic - Kevin Macleod Magic Forest - Kevin Macleod Vibing Over Venus - Kevin Macleod Sources/Further Reading: Carol J. Clover - Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender In The Modern Horror Film Roger Ebert Films Used With Footage: Megan Is Missing Funny Games (2007) A Serbian Film The Human Centipede 2 Martyrs The Girl Next Door The above movies' associated footage is utilized purely within the realm of fair use due to the transformative nature of the clips, and their educational and analytical purpose. #horrormovies #filmanalysis #filmtheory #moviereviews Chapters (timestamps added after upload) 0:00 Introduction 8:00 The Plots 10:42 Analytical Lens 12:14 Megan Is Missing Analysis 30:13 PSA and Funny Games 40:34 Other Examples 44:31 Conclusion 45:20 Resources