I waited. And only because of the little actress Kennedy Bryce, who at that time I liked, and wanted to watch her development in the movies, and the plot of the film “Demons June” interested me. The subject may be battered with all these child demons, but it's still interesting to watch. And when he came out and I was able to normally watch the long-awaited movie, there were quite mixed impressions: like he gave me nothing, but did not make me particularly worried about the time spent. Still, I expected more from him, although I am not surprised by this outcome – there are no horror films now, but I confess that I often like films, despite how badly they could be met by film critics and simply by audiences. Right there -- I don't know. Perhaps plus for quite normal acting (limping still), well, for Kennedy, just for her appearance on the screen.
I can’t say anything about the story, I’ve been looking at gaps in memory for a long time now. Pictures that I like to remember with ease, as if I watched only yesterday, and this one did not stand out. The story of the girl June, left an orphan, after which she falls into a nice family who met her with love, but they could not even think what this innocent soul entails.
The main villain of this film is not June herself, a la Esther Coleman from "Orphans" (as it was nicknamed by us - "Child of Darkness"), but the demon Aer, who got into the body of the girl under very strange circumstances. Throughout the film, she tries to confront her inner enemy, to have control over herself, but who won you even find out for yourself.
It’s up to you to spend your time on June’s Demons, but for me, it’s just for once. Watching in some places was boring, which even wanted to rewind; unforgettable dialogue and the film itself. It is easy to forget, remembered only recently through work.
5 out of 10
The film is so boring, boring and indistinct that there is nothing to joke about. It does not even have bright blunders, which are in cheap thrash horror films, and over which you can laugh from the heart. Do not laugh at the cliché with a handkerchief a la “Operation Y”, which is used in films around the world, including in good films.
I want to note almost the only plus: excellent camera work. Here competent plans, juicy picture, some shots are asked in the frame and on the wall. If we consider the picture as an advertisement for the operator - bravo, above all praise. But everything else...
No, it's not that bad. He's even good. True, the title theme elusively (okay, very subtle) resembles the main theme of John Carpenter’s classic Halloween. But OK, you could close your eyes on this... if there was a clear scenario.
Strange, but you can’t even say what is wrong with the script and directing. They're nothing. So nothing that there is nothing to cling to, point a finger and say “here and here and here is not so, this and this fix, but here you specifically screwed up.”
Characters? Indistinct. It seems that there is some drama, some conflicts, some background, some climax, some denouement, some motivation of the heroes. Well, you know, the keyword is "something." I ate a dog digging up hidden meaning in not-so-good movies, but there's nowhere to dig.
What do we have in terms of actors? They're not good either. All. Even the beautiful and miserable Casper Van Ding, who for some reason was very unlucky with an acting career. In general, everyone seems to make the right faces at the right moment, even the title child is not to say that she played badly (although not to say that it is good - you remember Jodell Ferland in Silent Hill: a real devil, not a child, and how she skillfully acted out scenes for an innocent girl, and for the creation of hell)... but at the same time everything is not the same. You don’t believe them because you don’t believe them.
One thing is surprising: that the film was shown in theaters, and not immediately released on TV. It's like the director sold his soul for that. Hey, Mr. Cooper, I'm sure the soul could have been used for more ambitious purposes! For example, sell it to make a good movie, not to make a bad movie on big screens.
2 out of 10
P.S. The bird is sorry. I mean, operator. Comrades, no one needs a good operator? He won't be seen in a movie like that.
In modern horror, the theme of small obsessed children, especially women, is actively exploited. These kids necessarily prove their stupid parents, necessarily have the abilities of tele- and pyrokinesis, necessarily behave inadequately during attacks of strong resentment, necessarily draw some terrible bullying, and the rest of the world around is necessarily so naive that only at the last critical moment positive characters understand that this particular child is not just “irritated” or “need to talk to him”, but a real problem, and even exposed to otherworldly forces.
L. Gustavo Cooper skillfully hides his inexperience behind standard, perfectly acceptable camera work and visual effects in scenes where they are needed. And just as skillfully he shames the complete ignorance of how to write interesting scenarios, how logical the characters should be in their actions and with the help of which to keep not only the attention, but primarily the interest of the viewer for almost an hour and a half. The film is distinguished only by an intriguing beginning, in which June has not yet moved into the ideal American middle class family, but huddled with troubled parents. If June stayed in this family, there could be three options: a non-standard horror movie, a typical tragicomedy or a drama pretending to be everyday heavyweight. But the girl cried, cried, cried again - and received as a gift other parents, such disgusted caring, kind, loving her and each other. Happy ending? That wasn't it!
When the film turns on this “track”, it changes beyond recognition, rolling down the slope in the wilds of script helplessness and directorial arbitrariness. I didn’t care what problems the child would bring to the newly-born mother and father, and then the emotional state turned from pofigism to irritation: such oversights as instant freezing in the kitchen, in which no one even shrugged, or the stupidity of the heroine calling for help from a closed garage, when it is clear that soundproofing will not allow her voice to come out, and there is still no one in a kilometer diameter around. Bravo, creators of horror! You made us laugh. I wish I could scare you.
If I thought at one point that “June’s Demons” is a partial parody of Stephen King’s “Carrie” (especially in the scene with menstruation), then I became convinced that this is rather a parody of the genre itself, exploiting small obsessed girls, because in the end the “porridge” presented to us turns into something completely indigestible, and the original idea that explains the unstable nature of the girl turns out to be a weak “push” into emptiness. Yes, we tried to bring together all the plot threads, but did it save the film? Especially when the final turned out to be incompetent at all, because “we need to somehow put an end, let’s just take and stupidly finish.”
It is not known when in the horror will cease to blame all the evil of the world on unhappy children. It's time to come up with something new. Five-year-olds can’t surprise anyone for a long time, and the stories in which they dominate as conductors of demonic anger are as uninitiatively monstrous as the creators of such an action themselves, who do not even try to think about spitting on Hollywood standards and telling about something really interesting, really frightening, really capable of imprinting on memory.
3 out of 10
How did you get these low-quality, painfully similar films about demons who settled in the souls of unfortunate people! “Demons June” is one of the most disgusting films of this genre, which I had to watch.
I still wonder how this creation reached the big screens in Russia. I understand that Gallows, billed as a film from the “creators of Astral and Paranormal Phenomenon”, was shown in theaters, it collected a box office. But how did you get this done?
It's not funny! Watched “Demons June” purely out of interest – well, Casper Van Dien for the first time in many years appeared on the screen, before that preferring to star in any disgust. “Star Troops” and “Sleepy Hollow”, nevertheless, were his star roles... well, “Sharks” with a stretch – I personally like this film.
A completely “crazy” plot with an abundance of “cool” special effects with a slow-motion camera is, according to the director, Gustavo Cooper (stop, who is this?) – the perfect step in the film, telling about a demon and a child possessed by him.
The incomprehensible plot, with no less incomprehensible connection, denouement and what is in between, is so bad that I do not see any point in writing a review on this “film” into two pages (I am amazed how others could do it, and even paint my review in green!) .
The movie's bad. Bad for all components - the actors' play, the idea, the shooting, special effects, the clumsiness of the narrative - everything is so poorly implemented that you examine it only out of curiosity - who will die and who will survive, at the same time wondering: what kind of family of freaks was at first, why talk about the uselessness of a child when he is so close that he is ready to hear your breath, what kind of people in hoods are satanists or just crazy. who think of missions?
The only plus in 83 minutes of disappointment is the moment with a garbage shredder and a ring.
But look at you. I do not impose my opinion on anyone.
For more than one hundred years, representatives of various confessions are trying to convince the inhabitants of the truth and immutability of their teachings. They have nothing to do with it, but they have nothing to say. And the "miracles" of them all crumble to dust even at the most superficial analysis. But what if there really were both “forces beyond” and people who could talk to them and show them to the world? Wouldn't these mediators have gained power over all other people?
A group of some role-players, by default called a sect, calls on a certain entity to place it in the body of a child. But one of the participants suddenly sabotages the entire operation and the download is interrupted by about fifty percent. Then there is the standard history of the development of the “chosen child”: endless tolls, dislike of peers, grief-guardians and, as a natural result, the bloody massacre of offenders through hidden force.
I didn’t understand much about this movie, I confess right away. I may not even have the right to criticize him. But I honestly tried to understand, suffered from the introduction to the credits and therefore I want to speak. The whole story seemed to me terribly stupid and ill-conceived. The rite of settlement was covered, the participants died, the child disappeared. A few years later, another branch of this sect finds an already grown girl (finds without any problems, but only, despite the poltergeists that are happening around her, continues to wriggle) and eventually scolds the child... one of its adepts? Everything in the tape is so fresh and colorless that I could hardly focus on what was happening. Heroes are completely inconsistent, all their decisions are made from the velvet bay, which will pick up - then they do. It seems that no one knows anything and can not understand, by the middle of the film, half are initiated and everything went according to plan and continues to go (although five minutes ago no one really caught up with what was happening and seemed to be out of business), but by the end such game began that my brains finally went into a stupor.
Anyway, what did I see here? The members of the sect initially knew where the child was (their knowledge is foolish to deny), and there was no need to rinse poor June through all sorts of alcoholic families, since she was so important. The object of their worship is extremely strange: the goddess of the elements, on which they rely (while calling themselves “Guardians of the Earth”), is extremely aggressive and to each counter-transverse predicts only Hell and destruction. Why do you want to worship, and even call to the world? For the sake of that notorious power over other people? The goal is justified, but only, given the behavior and actions of Aer (or what is it?), completely unattainable. And this is only a cursory look, I am sure that things at the tape are much worse.
A boring, uninteresting, incoherent spectacle. The picture is murderously boring - absolutely everything that happens here happens terribly slowly. This film imprinted in my head like one long dreary sloumo, just to watch which is an unprecedented feat.
2 out of 10
Mystical horror about the struggle of the human soul against the demon, invading an innocent body, can be safely considered one of the most popular themes in the genre of horror films. Even the great William Friedkin in the memorable tape “The Exorcist” told what problems can be fraught with the presence of an otherworldly guest who is able to deprive a person of life with a single movement of his hand, gradually absorbing the conquered person and turning him into his puppet. The classic film of 1973 became the first worthy incarnation of the eternal battle of good with evil, occurring on a subtle spiritual level. Shortly after Friedkin’s work, Richard Donner’s no less epochal “Omen” saw the light, telling that evil can not only inhabit, but also be born in the body of a child, which entails even greater destruction, because the inseparable coexistence of a child and a demon entails the approach of the End of the World, described in the Bible. The tapes of Friedkin and Donner quite deservedly gained a cult status and gave filmmakers of subsequent generations the opportunity to create in a given direction, striking the audience with blood-colding revelations related to the inexorably impending war, which is quite likely already underway, and we can only speculate about it. His word in the given direction decided to say also talented debutant in the big movie L. Gustavo Cooper, previously had a hand in a number of remarkable short films. Joining forces with Sharon J. Cobb, Cooper wrote a truly terrifying parable entitled “June’s Demons.” The story, describing the struggle of a little girl with a dangerous demon, has become a surprisingly strong, intriguing spectacle that combines all the best that was in “The Exorcist” and “Omen”, borrowing from the classics win-win finds, while presenting to the public an original story with unique features. Fans of the genre for the most part have already forgotten when a truly worthwhile project about obsession was released in the rental, and therefore the quite natural skepticism directed towards the “June Demons” is not at all surprising. However, I hasten to assure you that Gustavo L. Cooper tried to ensure that his first full-length film, which became the property of the general public, turned out at the level and left a memorable trace of positive feedback from both viewers and critics.
So, the plot of the film introduces us to a girl named June (Kennedy Bryce), whose fate is called cloudless. A young orphan is forced to stay in a shelter for a long time, dreaming about when some family will take her in. Responsive social worker Victor Emmanuel (Eddie Jamison) does everything possible to ensure that June is sheltered by decent people, giving the girl much more time than other orphans, trying as quickly as possible to relinquish obligations so that the child could live a full life under the care of a decent family. June's long wanderings finally end when Dave (Casper Van Dean) and Lily (Victoria Pratt) Anderson, unable to have children of their own, appear in her life. The baby immediately charmed the couple and they took her home without thinking twice, not realizing what a nightmare they let into their monastery. Together with June, the Andersons are invaded by an angry otherworldly demon Aer, lurking in the girl and waiting for the hour when he can enter into full force and plunge the earth into chaos. The unfortunate little girl risks dissolving in her unwanted guest, finally turning into his puppet. Unable to stand up to Aer, June needs help. Stunned Andersons, faced with unimaginable horrors, are forced to fight not for life, but for death, because only their participation depends on whether June will be able to get rid of the curse and find the peace of mind that she could previously only dream of.
In the hands of Gustavo L. Cooper, a quite traditional plot about the struggle for the life of a child against a demon turned into an intriguing, tense action that boasts a lot of surprises, thanks to which the viewing cannot be called straightforward. Together with the heroes, we go a long, dangerous path on which it is unacceptable to make mistakes, because every wrong step can become fatal. June Demons presents us with the impending end of the world, capable of originating in the body of a child. But this time, the young heroine can resist evil, and not grow with it, like a weak-willed shell. The struggle of June and Aera does not stop for a moment and we see that soon the demon will win a crushing victory. For this, he joined with June and so simply from his plans to not give up. Increases its power is also a mysterious cult, which does not recognize belief in the precepts of the Holy letter and gradually prepares a large-scale coming of the Lord, in the hope that he will give them eternal life and power over a blind society, mired in spiritual ignorance. On the side of June are primarily her adoptive parents. Yes, they have not known each other for a long time, but there is a strong bond between them. The fact that Dave and Lily can't have children biologically means nothing. There are cases when kinship is determined by heaven, which we clearly see on the example of the main characters.
The young Kennedy Bryce was very pleased with her performance. The girl could easily get used to the image of two characters at once. June is full of charm and innocence. This is a child that any parent can dream of. She tries in every possible way to do the right thing and does not contradict her elders, realizing that they want her well. In turn, Aer, who settled in June, represents darkness in its most evil manifestations. His insidiousness is in direct proportion to the unprecedented power that can destroy any wall. One can only imagine the danger Aer will pose when he is fully reborn and can give up his neighborhood with June. Kennedy Bryce showed us beyond his years what happens to a man when he is not his own. She is at the same time frightening and makes you admire. The dramatic talent of the little actress is beyond doubt and I want to believe that she has a great future.
It was nice to see Casper Van Dean in the top positions, whose career after working with Paul Verhoeven and Tim Burton leaves much to be desired. But as if the Dream Factory did not turn a blind eye to Van Ding, he still manages to get into interesting projects and prove that it is too early to write him off. In June Demons, Casper got the difficult role of a novice father. He has many questions for the baby and her gift, but he is not able to simply abandon her, trying to get to the truth and help her in the difficult struggle.
In the end, I want to say that “Demons June”, is a dramatic, spectacular horror, able to please both acting and confident directing. Believe me, the film is heartfelt and causes genuine alarm.
Children are the flowers of life, our heritage, our future, without which all endeavors are meaningless. The task of adults is their training and instruction, because what children learn from an early age will become for them a guiding thread and a transformer of character. It so happened that the eternal battle for children’s souls takes place not only between earthly teachers, but also between light and darkness. The higher forces are not going to retreat, doing everything possible so that the child will step on their side. But it also happens that a child can become a harbinger of a real apocalypse, melting evil inside, which cannot be considered, but without problems you can feel its heavy aura, sweeping away everything in its path. The most remarkable film on the theme of the child-devil is the unforgettable “Omen” by Richard Donner, indicating the laws of the mystical genre, which no one dares to violate until now. Many directors tried to get close to the story of the Antichrist, but not many were able to repeat even half of Donner’s success, sliding into a repetition of what they had gone through. However, there are rare cases when it seems not the most noisy project can become a sensation worthy of close attention from fans of mystical horror. Such unexpectedly pleasant surprises can be safely attributed to the “Demons of June”, staged by L. Gustavo Cooper, for whom this tape became the debut in the full meter.
The presented story describes the misadventures that fell on the souls of pretty June, a little girl with a difficult fate. Honey had to grow up without parental care, away from warm words and the help of loved ones. And after a long wait, June still manages to find a family in the person of Dave and Lily Anderson. Responsive people, unable to have their own children, happily sheltered the girl, trying to protect her from frowning thoughts and providing everything that children need. However, the family idyll of the Anderson family does not work, as together with June they let a demon named Aer into their house. The cruel creation of Hell periodically captures the body and mind of the girl, splashing out a riot of supernatural force. When June is around, you can't be sure nothing will happen to you. The slightest mistake can turn into a catastrophe that can take human lives. But no matter what nightmares June has, Dave and Lily are not ready to give her up so easily, because they took her into their daughter for a reason. The family has no right to abandon its members, no matter what troubles stand in the way. But to overcome the darkness itself is not as easy as it may seem. The Andersons need help, especially since strangers have plans for June and its power, from whom good does not have to be expected.
Unlike most films about being possessed by a demonic presence, June Demons has a powerful dramatic message that family values are our protection and support. Finally, the focus of the plot is not another group of deranged teenagers or moderately frowning priests, but the most ordinary, ordinary American family, which will have to fight with what is simply impossible to prepare for. The director saturated the narratives with a small amount of appropriate humor to give his characters credibility. The character of each of the characters has peculiarities, so you can not say that there is no one to worry about in the story told. The narrative proceeds thoroughly, without sharp changes. We manage to understand the motivations and experiences of the characters, how to get acquainted with them. especially pleased with the presence in the frame of Kasper Van Dean, who played the role of Dave Anderson. Unfairly pushed into the background in Hollywood, the talented actor proved that he can play both brave soldiers and caring fathers. Van Ding is a father in life, and therefore it is not at all surprising that he immediately found a common language with the charming Kennedy Bryce (June), creating a quite truthful father-daughter tandem with her.
It is worth noting the atmosphere of the film. She's really creepy. When the true power of June, or Aera, begins to appear on the screen, you begin to feel genuine anxiety. Calling “Demons June” a horror film in its classic manifestation will not work, but it can scare much more than some purebred samples of the genre.
Thus, I want to say that “Demons June” will be a real gift to all those viewers who missed the quality of demonic mysticism. It is difficult to predict the end of the story, you worry about the heroes, as if they are directly connected with history. So I safely recommend the tape to watch, as one of the most memorable mystical nightmares of recent times.
7 out of 10
Unknown director L. Gustavo Cooper in the Russian box office in November of this year will burst with a horror film about a little girl June, who at birth became a victim of some sectarians who put in her some supernatural something called Aer. The girl seems to get along with her second self, posing as an imaginary friend, but as soon as she gets upset about something and gets out of her calm state, Aer takes possession of June’s body and destroys everything around her. Having thus destroyed a couple of families, where, of course, she was not loved and respected by adults, and her peers were pestered with mockery, some strange guardianship worker, who knows from somewhere about June's secrets, finds a new family for her, where the girl will have no reason to upset. It would seem that she is waiting for a new carefree life, but it was not here ...
It’s hard to talk about a movie when it’s not there. Yes, what Cooper came up with in co-authorship with Sharon J. Cobb is not some sophisticated puzzle, or at least an interconnected confluence of events that would have logic and consistency – it’s just a tracing, which sketched out a number of ideas, and not new and have long been used in other horror, and in this unfinished form and left, without even trying to somehow all this so that at least looked like a single whole. The director goes to extremes, then sending June to the most terrible family, where mom is a finished prostitute, dad is a drinking mechanic, judging by the oily divorces on his shirt, and peers sing for the night “your mother died”, sitting in a cozy family circle, in order to show what Aer is capable of, then to the most ideal family, where everyone is licking for the girl and almost ass, even when she predicts death to everyone with blood soaked eyes, and throws dishes with food in the back. To suspect strangeness in all this, as well as in the incomprehensible interest of a social security agent - once spit, and we can only hope for scarecrows, because the ending in such an illogical film will clearly not fix anything.
But they're not even here. And the ones that are, not that predictable - they can be smelled a kilometer away. There are no banal screamers. The maximum that is done - twice in an hour with a small type of Aer's face is shown. That's it. Neither the inflating atmosphere, nor the typical horror music, which could at least give a little darkness and catch up with fear - nothing. For a long time it was not that when watching a horror movie, never flinched. And I'm still too impressionable, but here you can only be frightened by the excessive idiocy of the people around June, who from stage to scene pose as utterly senile. Among all the eggheads stands out the former star paratrooper, who grew a gray beard, which, apparently, gave him more wisdom than the rest, and he after another antics June begins to think: “And what?” But feminism takes its toll, and the once-successful killer of cockroaches shoves his opinion far away.
But sometimes sane Kasper Van Dean and more or less tolerant work of the operator is damn little to advise to watch this film. And in general, if in the film static, the most ordinary camera work has to be extolled as one of the main advantages, then I think there is nothing more to talk about. There is no interesting plot, because logic and meaning are completely absent, there are no horrors as such, feeble-minded helpless heroes, absolute atmospherelessness - how better to say that for the actors represented here, "Demona June" is a complete failure? Even the title of a second-rate picture, able to get lost on the shelves with her like, does not pull. “Total failure” is the best way to describe what you see in brief.