June 9

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.

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.

A group of a**holes act like a**holes for 75 minutes, then in the last 10 minutes, reap their karma. Roll credits.

It's really that simple, yet it drags on seemingly forever, because there's nothing but a handheld camera filming the a**holes "pranking" victims that one knows nothing about other than that they are victimized by the a**holes. Oh, except that some of the victims are kinda creepy, as they're seen as filmed (by the a**holes) in their homes, standing at attention and staring blankly at nothing in the middle of the night. No explanation for this behavior to be found.

No character or plot development; absolutely no sympathetic characters; the only emotion it stirred in me with its "shocking" ending was relief: It's finally over!

If there's a point to this exercise in tedium, it certainly eluded me.

"June 9". A group of friends from school film themselves doing pranks in their local area, upping the ante each time. The date is shown to be June 4 when the movie opens, and, even after a few very scary encounters, the ring leader of the group pushes the friends further and further down the rabbit hole of risk, inching slowly towards the inevitable "June 9", where their story culminates to a rip roaring demise for all.

After waiting for 6 years for this movie to get a proper release, I have finally added it to my ever growing collection of horror and genre films. This is maybe one of the rarest found footage films out there and its definitely one to own. Support indie filmmakers. With that being said, "June 9" plays out just as I'd thought. This movie was filmed in 2008 so it has that old school feel to it a bit which only helps the authenticity of the film. Done on a very low budget, its still basically a success, though this movie does move at a slow pace. I recommend this movie to found footage fans and collectors because otherwise, it may be ragged on.