June (2015) Movie Review

By: Justin Hopkins

**SPOILER WARNING**

I am not normally a fan of possession films. Tend to all go about the same formula and never really enjoy them all that much, but going into the B Movie Selection. Decided top give one a go and finally settled on June. Mostly because the picture of the little girl with a bunch of knives floating about her seemed like a good time. So lets dive in and discuss the movie, shall we.

We start with a voice over of a women talking about a savoir, a child with two souls. One good and the other evil. A bit of a title screen and a ritual happening around a baby. With bright lights swirling with darkness. When the lead cult member is stabbed an things get out of control and everyone except one teen who ran and the baby die. We jump ahead to nine years and we see now orphaned June. Living in a trailer, with a bunch of other orphans and parents who collect them for the money. Which the Social Worker, Emmanuel sees through and tells her he can find her a new home, before leaving. That night when the other kids start picking on her. The Demon, Aer, comes out and fries the electricity and the next day during a BBQ. When one of the kids picks on her again. Only this time when Aer came out. Takes down everyone with a ten foot radius in a loud scream. Which got her removed from the house and place with Lily and Dave Anderson. A friendly couple who are a little taken back by her drawings, but more than thrilled to have a child. They take her to school and when she gets called on to answer a question in front of the class. She begins to bleed everywhere and blacks out. Having a nightmare and comes face to face with Aer. Turns out it was her first period and Emmanuel believes homeschooling is the way to go and the Mom agrees. Going into a montage of the three bonding, but mostly June and Lily. When Dave is taking pictures, we see a glimpse of Aer before the camera breaks and he begins to get more concerned after finding pictures of him scratched out and I will leave it there for now.

I didn’t outright dislike what they were trying to do here. Presenting this cult that were trying to bring this demon into the world to reset the world for nature and had some fun ideas set up, but didn’t take any time to capitalize on any of it. I loved the fact that Lily was the survivor if the ritual and June once again ended up back in her life. They could have played with the concept the Aer knew her and had some fun interactions with them. Could have had David really investigating and discovering everything on his own. Even have the occult sway him over due to his love of nature. They could have done a lot with what they were presenting, but only did a little bit of everything. Dave figured out Emmanuel from his pictures, only had a slight stare down between Aer and Lily and rather weak end with the Cult made very little sense. Especially when we have seen just how strong Aer is.

It wasn’t outright awful. June was an interesting character and liked the concept of the two spirits inside her. Seeing her coming out of her shell and finding happiness but Aer threatening to cost her that. Lily trying to take care of June to keep Aer appeased even at the cost of her marriage. There were some fun things throughout that kept my attention.

The acting was just alright. Kennedy Brice did a really good job as both June and Aer. Had pretty good chemistry with Victoria Pratt who played Lily. No one was outwardly bad, just alright.

The movie suffers from trying to tell a story with so much going on, with bare minimum effort to tell the tale. Had so much going on and instead of going into it. Just shrugs it off and carries on, without bothering to explore it and it is because of that, can’t really suggest it to anyone. Which is kind of disappointing. Don’t really like telling people to pass on a movie, but kind of becoming an ugly habit. Here’s to next week being better. As always, I hope you enjoyed and…

Thanks You For Reading!