Horror movies are always a good choice for a Friday night in, whether films featuring creepy dolls or the popular Scream franchise. It's rare to hear about certain horror movies being banned since what's scary, dark, and disturbing is often in the eye of the beholder.

Some people prefer romantic comedies to what's spooky and find nothing entertaining about serial killers, ghosts, curses, or anything else that could bring a threat to characters' lives. Others need to see every new release.

Horror fans will be interested to hear about the movie Megan Is Missing and how one country actually banned it.

New Zealand's Decision

Some horror movies have important stories to tell, like the Netflix film His House. Others might try to do the right thing by exploring a story that is upsetting and sad and teaches people about the dark side of life. But in some cases, the movie is so scary that the potential social message is lost. That seems to be the case with Megan Is Missing.

New Zealand banned the movie because it's so graphic and dark.

According to The Fab, the Office of Film and Literature Classification comes out with a report each year, and in June 2012, they decided that this movie couldn't be watched int hat country. They said, “The DVD is classified as objectionable" because the sexual assault in the film "involving young people to such an extent and degree, and in such a manner, that the availability of the publication is likely to be injurious to the public good."

There is also a scene where a young girl is assaulted for three entire minutes and it's shot in "real time," so it makes sense that this office would decide to ban the film.

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More About The Movie

megan is missing horror movie
via The Independent

According to The Tab, the movie stars Amber Perkins and Rachel Quinn as high school pals Amy Herman and Megan Stewart. Amy searches for Megan, who began chatting with someone on the Internet and then disappeared.

It makes sense that New Zealand would ban this movie since it features 14-year-old girls in a really terrible and disturbing situation.

Even the movie's director has acknowledged that it's a very tough watch. According to USA Today, Michael Goi, who also wrote the film, said, "I didn't get to give you the customary warnings that I used to give people before they watched 'Megan Is Missing,' which are: Do not watch the movie in the middle of the night. Do not watch the movie alone" he listed. "And if you see the words 'photo number one' pop up on your screen, you have about four seconds to shut off the movie if you're already kind of freaking out before you start seeing things that maybe you don't want to see."

Refinery 29 points out that while the movie is fictional, Goi was thinking about real tales of kids who were kidnapped. Because the movie tells the story in a found footage way, it sounds like that makes it even more disturbing.

Goi told Indie Film Nation Podcast that he wanted to write and direct the movie and he shared, "I wanted to do a movie about this subject. Normally I'm a cinematographer... but when a subject especially appeals to me and I think it's important to get the word out about it, I direct, and this is one of those cases." They had eight and a half days to film the movie, five people worked on the crew, and the budget was $30,000. While the director definitely wanted to spread the word about the really horrible things that can happen to teenage girls, the movie is so scary that people really can't watch it.

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A Viral Phenomenon

Why are people talking about a movie that came out in 2011? The movie went viral on TikTok. According to Entertainment Weekly, people have been watching it and talking about it there, saying it really horrified them. There are many social media comments to that affect. According to Insider.com, the movie's hashtag has a total of 83 million views on TikTok.

Goi said that Amber Perkins let him know that people were talking about it on TikTok so he wanted to say something. He explained, "Apologies to those who are already posting about how the movie is already freaked them out. Fair warning to those of you who are still contemplating watching the film."

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It definitely sounds like Megan Is Missing is too dark for many people to watch, so it makes sense that the movie would be banned in New Zealand.

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