dutchchocolatecake This is a very original movie with a twist at the end you have to sit through the credits for. The viewer bonds with the characters through the first hour of the film, as clues about Hell Town are dropped between pranks. This is a movie where you have to pay attention to see where the story is going. There are many scenes that freaked me out. After that it starts to pick up, culminating in a quick and hideous end. The shock is not just what happened to the Boston Mill Five, but who did it and why.If you google Hell Town Ohio, and follow the coordinates on the Wiki page to Google Maps; a satellite view of the area looks almost exactly like the area shown at the end of the movie. Definitely adds to the creep factor, for sure.

Jack Sessna I can remember when I saw the film 'REC' on suggestion from a friend and I was terrified by it. Then, a few months later, I was scrolling through a selection of movies and I found this film. I picked it out and watched it the full way through. By the end, I was in shock by what I'd seen.Bear in mind, this film isn't award-winning acting or plot, but the style in which it's executed is all but horrid, managing to flawlessly pull off the style of the late 90's, the year being 1999 in the film.-Plot- A gang of friends decide to go around from town to town causing mischief and mayhem on the locals and catching everything on their hand-held camera. What they don't realize is that the pranks they pulled off on the locals of a town called Boston Mills didn't go unnoticed and, as such, have stirred up the hive. Soon, the trips to Boston Mills become more and more bizarre, leading to the massacre of the four teens by the townfolk in a cornfield. Each teen is killed in some gruesome, maniacal way, one young woman sustained a direct jab from the rough edge of a sledgehammer to the forehead while another received repeated blows to the skull with a rock from another crazed local. Another short film during the credits reveals that the teens were carved up and fed to pigs while their belongings were stored and sifted through by the locals in a shed behind a church.The plot seems recycled from the 70's crazed killer movies, but the execution is nearly flawless. With solid and realistic acting from most of the characters followed up by a gruesome and truly disturbing ending that you thought would've been tamer, this film is truly a hidden gem in the sinking ship that is the horror film genre.-Overall- 'June 9' attempted and managed to pull off a P.O.V hand-held film that would normally go along nicely using a regular 35mm. The feeling that you get from the film is that you're accompanying these teens on some sort of adventure that is abruptly halted by a sickening ending. You watch as these four kids you traveled about with are slaughtered mercilessly and you can do nothing about it. These are nightmares that every person has when they'd watch films like Deliverance or even Jason and, for that, 'June 9' will always remain my pick as one of the better horror movies to come out of 2008.

JohnShatzer This is an interesting low budget movie that is shot in a Blair Witch style with the characters carrying the camera around with them. Unlike the knock-offs, this movie has a different and entertaining story line. There are three teenage guys and a couple of girls who spend a few days in June driving to a nearby community called Boston Mills. There are all sorts of stories about the town, which is nicknamed HELLTOWN. They include a haunted bus, the crazy lady who killed her kids and the creepy church. Pretty much the standard legends that most small towns have that capture the imagination of bored kids. Along with visiting all the sites, they get into trouble with some of the locals, which results in some vandalism and several really creepy encounters. All of this comes to a bloody end when they return one final time to recover a missing purse.This is a very well made and entertaining independent movie that I enjoyed way more than I thought I was going to. While I'm among those that wish the first person video camera movie phase that has been popular of late would pass, this movie still sucked me in. The story is different and combines the recent trend of kids taping themselves doing the dumbest things with a horror movie. I've never seen anyone approach one of these movies this way and found it very creative. The story is filled with the sort of local legends that anyone who grew up in a rural area will immediately relate to. Of course in my case, being from Ohio and knowing something about where they were shooting, only made that more fun. Now the movie does slow down a bit and get repetitive towards the end as they keep going back when most people would have bailed, but the ending is so killer that it more than makes up for that. I also need to say that I have no idea where director T. Michael Conway found his cast, but well done. They are all young actors that in most cases seem to have nothing on their resume other than this movie. They are all very good and natural. Not once while watching the movie did I ever even notice that they were acting. This is so rare to say about an independent movie that I just had to point it out.This movie is supposed to be shot by one of the kids with a consumer video camera and looks like it was. If you are looking for well-lit, superbly polished camera work this is the wrong movie for you. Also if you are susceptible to motion sickness (like I am) you might just get a little sick to your stomach watching this movie (I was by the end). But for me, that just made the movie more effective and was part of the experience. In addition to the previous, there are also a couple of really effective creepy moments that are captured on the camera nicely. There is a bit with some night vision and a mysterious figure in the woods that was scary and another with a couple of people standing in a house staring out the windows that also worked nicely. Speaking of scary, the voice on the CB radio freaked me out just a bit.This is one of the creepier independent movies that I've seen in a long time. My big rule with movies, regardless of funding, is whether they entertained me. While June 9 had a micro budget and looks like it, I still had fun with it. I've always thought that a talented filmmaker could make a decent movie on any budget and I believe June 9 proves my point. I recommend that horror fans give the movie a chance to surprise them.

FelixGJr2010-702-459161 There has long been a tradition in shoe-string horror movies for the filmmakers to capitalize on their lack of studio equipment and funding by deliberately capturing a raw, realistic atmosphere to make the events on screen more believable. "The Blair Witch Project" probably took the cake in successfully convincing the world that what was taking place in the film really happened, but it was certainly not the first to do so, owing quite a bit to the controversial 1980 Italian film "Cannibal Holocaust" and the 1992 BBC special "Ghostwatch." Legion Filmworks now presents another pseudo-realistic shocker, "June 9." Written, produced, and directed by T. Michael Conway, this direct-to-DVD feature was filmed entirely on a digital camera to give it an eerily authentic feel and, like "Blair Witch," supposedly chronicles the last days of a group of kids who mysteriously vanish without a trace.During a carefree June in 1999, five Ohio teenagers set out for some mischievous fun in the nearby suburb of Boston Mills. After hearing strange tales of the small town's sinister past, Derek Boggman (Trevor Williams) decides to go back for further investigation with his sister Lisa (Alasha Wright) and friends Robert, Jennifer and Berty (Jon Ray, Maggie Blazunas and Chad Vincent). With video camera in tow, the group records every moment of their summer adventure as they drive through the sleepy town in their van. At first only interested in Boston Mills for its novelty value, the kids soon realize that the residents seem to be keeping a particularly close eye on them. Why are the locals so fascinated by five harmless teenagers? And what is it that they are hiding behind locked doors? Lacking conventional plot structure and character development, "June 9" relies heavily on the juvenile antics and defiant attitudes of the lead characters to anchor the film as the horror steadily builds around them. Indeed, the young cast comes off quite natural as they interact with one another. With all of the action captured on a jerky digital camera, the film takes on the appearance of a video diary, making the horror all the more tangible. Through a gallery of genuinely disturbing imagery, the filmmakers subtly create an increasing sense of dread as the kids move closer to uncovering the truth about Boston Mills. Strangers peeking out of windows and voices speaking in foreign tongues conjure up greater fears than all of the special effects money can buy. Tension builds as the kids become more and more aware that their quest for fun is leading them to something they could never have fathomed, culminating in a final twist that could very well go down in cult horror film infamy.Legion Filmworks' DVD presentation looks quite good, preserving the film in its original full-frame aspect ratio. The picture is as good as it can look for being filmed on digital video. Whatever digital artifacts are present are part of the original source and conjunctive with the "home-movie" illusion. The image is frequently bright and quite clear, with a grainy look during night scenes. Again, all of this is intentional.Audio is presented in a 2.0 stereo track that, like the picture, deliberately reflects its low-budget status. There is really little to be said of it. This is not a Hollywood picture with a souped-up sound mix. What you get is exactly what it would be were this footage of an actual event. Accordingly, there are no subtitle options.What we have here is a creepy, unnerving little feature that works because of its utter simplicity. There are no bogeymen jumping out of closets or CG specters coming through the walls. Just the documented footage of a group of ill-fated kids who went out for some thrills and got much more than they bargained for. Director T. Michael Conway knows what scares and has taken no cheap shots with this surprising picture. Don't expect to have a good night's sleep after this one, as the chilling images will stay with you long after the final credits roll.Felix Gonzalez Jr. DVDReview.com