June 9

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Written, directed, and produced by T. Michael Conway. Starring Jon Ray, Trevor Williams. Maggie Blazunas, Alasha Wright, and Chad Vincent.

Legion Film Works - 2008

Two Stars of Review! **

Like the Blair Witch Project before it, “June 9,” is a documentary style film about young people wandering into strange territory, and meeting a horrible fate. Rather than a small band of hungry documentary film makers we are instead along for the ride with a group of bone headed teenagers on a quest to score some weed, and play a few less than harmless pranks on the locals.

Don't get me the wrong the whole thing isn't as obnoxious as I just made it sound. The protagonists (or antagonists depending on how you see it) really are truly bone headed and obnoxious, but in a perfectly natural and realistic way. These aren't slasher flick stereotypes just aching to be eviscerated, but instead come across as genuine, and will probably remind you of yourself at that age in one way or another.

The films events take place over several days as a group of four companions travel to and from a rural town named Boston Mills. Initially they go to check out a supposed marijuana crop (a rumor started by “Ezra the Fagot” as a couple of characters helpfully point out), but after the kids come back with their stash one of them hears a few ghostly tales about “Hell Town”, as the locals call it, and they begin a tour of its more infamous locations .

I'm not going to say much about the production values, but what I will say is that the director makes clever enough use of what little is available. The town itself is sparse and seems to be made up of only a gas station, a diner, a few houses, and a lot of open woods. Its residents appear to have been plucked straight out of the early 30's with bow ties and dated jargon, but this is the films least convincing element. It has neither the strength in acting nor the budget to make Hell Town's denizens seem like anything other than bad actors. Fortunately the film doesn't linger on these details for longer than the plot calls for, and keeps the focus on the teens.

Unfortunately this also turns out to be the films biggest problem. The majority of the running time is spent watching the kids smoke cigarettes, curse, and play increasingly more malicious pranks on each other and any one who happens to be passing by. In other words: nothing happens. In fact the only two scary moments in the film come early, and you just might miss them if you blink.

In the end any sense of super natural dread that does get built up is tossed out in a shower of low budget gore. Whether or not you find this a suitable pay off for sitting through 132 minutes of mostly nothing is up to you. Maybe we're supposed to be filled with some sense of righteous anger as these kids get their due, but personally I just thought it was depressing. Oh and stay after the initial credits for an extra five minutes of unnecessary revelations.

Film available to watch instantly for Netflix subscribers