June 9

Haha just kidding this one aint good. Only fun to watch with friends. No scares, lack of set up, just nothing characters dicking around. Doesn't feel like a movie.

I grew up in the area, skied both Boston Mills and Brandywine back in the 70's. The incident in that area and time was the disappearance of Arthur Noske. One of the homes we passed on the way to the slopes was supposed to be the home the Noskes moved into with Dr. Kutler (look it up). Legend has/had it that Arthur's mother and the goodly Doc dispatched young Arthur in their fireplace.

I don't want to add any spoilers; There's a slow burn but for me this was a sllloooowww burn. It did drag for a while and frankly I about lost interest.....see last paragraph.

The acting was better than I anticipated, characters seemed "in place" for the suggested era. They even did a pretty good job keeping the set and props reasonable.

I felt the camerawork was a bit lacking though, this made watching tedious. BWP was of similar nature and I've read comments comparing these films. Cloverfield was a good film in the FF category but the camerawork was off the chart for me so I use that as a measuring stick (Cloverfield being nearly intolerable)...this wasn't "off the chart".

NO SPOILERS! Make sure you watch ALL of the film - if you've invested time reading this then you can sit through the entire film - until it stops playing. Seriously - if you watch it, watch all of it.

JUNE 9 is the date five high school kids disappeared in Boston Mills, Ohio, a place also known as "Helltown". The movie chronicles, in the form of found footage, the few days leading up that date, when the group repeatedly visited the locale to carry out vandalism and other shenanigans, and the aftermath.

I can understand the allure of using a plot device where a group of losers led by a budding sociopath eventually get their comeuppance for all their stupid pranks.

It is actually quite a clever concept:

we may feel some catharsis at their fate, but at the same time, the punishment is so out of proportion, and those who mete it out so nonchalant about their evil, that we cannot allow ourselves to feel catharsis. Thus, the movie leaves the viewer with mixed emotions, a perfect state for the story to remain with us, uneasy and unforgotten, reinforced by the creepy aftermath footage.

The granddaddy of found footage horror, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980) operated on a similar concept (except that the group of main characters there did much more evil things) and implemented it much more successfully than this film.

Unfortunately, the execution in this film was lacking. The camerawork was not great. It was difficult for me to relate to the characters and thus care for them. The movie spent way too much time on their dumb antics, which only increased my annoyance with these characters and made them less relatable. Instead of starting out on June 4th, and giving us a daily log of their visits until the final date, it should have started later. That they visited the same place 6 times in a row stretched a bit of credibility and was simply too much, plotwise. The ending was swift and anticlimactic, trading protracted suspense and horror in the final moments for eeriness of the aftermath.

Hardcore found footage horror fans may still find this enjoyable because it does give a vicarious experience of a group of wayward high school kids that feels authentic, and the liveliness of the group stands in stark contrast to the quietness of the aftermath. But I think most others will be turned off by how much time the movie spends on documenting their inane stunts.

The scares are largely non-existent, there is no mystery, the violence is muted and dated, and the cast is a bunch of nobodies with nothing to do. That said, what I did enjoy about this movie was watching the cast. This movie is set in the summer of 1999 and is surprisingly accurate in capturing how it felt hanging out as a teenager around that time. I saw a lot that reminded me own teenage years in the 90s so for that I don't feel like I totally wasted my time. For anyone else outside this specific age range though, this is a hard pass.

A great found footage movie. The post-credit scene adds context to an already dark scenario. It is a slow burn, and the characters are not likeable at all, but if you're a horror fan, you know what that means. I had low expectations going in so I was pleasantly surprised. You're going to want to let this ending sit with you for a while. After you do, you'll realize the true horror of it all.