Junesploitation 2026: Week 1
Morale is high
With a VPN under the hood, I’m diving deep into the US Prime and HBO-Max vaults. My routine is simple: stalk the daily themes directly or scavenge Letterboxd lists. Cranking out double-features means I’m locked into review duty the morning after.
Honestly, Junesploitation might beat Spooktober hands down—the sheer genre chaos is unmatched. History dictates I’ll hit a brutal mid-month wall, but this year hits different. Maybe documenting the madness is keeping the engine running. Morale is high.
Read more about the concept and prep work here: FThisMovie Junesploitation 2026
Day 1: ’90s Action! – Mercenary (1996)
Ed Lauter, John Ritter, and Martin Kove
I needed a totally blind watch. Nostalgia almost dragged me back to Broken Arrow, but seeing Ed Lauter, John Ritter, and Martin Kove slapped on the cover sealed the deal. I had to spin this supposed trash-action flick. The verdict? Completely blown away. It’s a straight-to-VHS deep cut lacking even a Wikipedia page, but an absolute hidden gem.
Read the Review Mercenary here!
4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (SQUIBS-HIGH)
Prime Video (USA-VPN).
Day 2: Cartoons! – The Hobbit (1977)
70s Nostalgia in a Tight Package
A lifelong watchlist holdout, finally crossed off. The narrative swings are fascinating, and the vocal tracks actually hit hard—it plays like an animated musical drenched in a heavy 70s groove.
Best of all? That razor-sharp 78-minute runtime. After surviving Peter Jackson’s bloated trilogy (which absolutely should have been a single picture), I’m begging the next adaptation to cap out at two (and a half) hours max. It’s a solid watch, but I really wish I’d rented it as a kid.
4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Prime Video (USA-VPN).
Day 3: Linda Blair! – Hell Night (1981)
Hazing Rituals and Slasher Gore
The opening kills it: a wild frat party dripping with Animal House vibes. Pledges face a classic initiation rite—survive a night in a massive manor with a twelve-year history of pure terror. The first half is packed with raw energy, and the cast actually clicks.
But once the slasher mayhem drops in this haunted Chainsaw Massacre-style house, the pacing tanks. It devolves into a bloated cat-and-mouse game full of endless, dragging solo chase sequences. It’s well-shot and genuinely entertaining at times, but honestly? It needed way more blood.
2.5/5 ⭐⭐✨
Prime Video (USA-VPN).
Day 4: Blaxploitation! – Black Dynamite (2009)
Fresh Kung Fu Kicks and Parody
I rolled with a blaxploitation spoof this time. Black Dynamite has a massive cult following, but count me out. Visually, it absolutely nails that raw 70s grit, delivering some hard-hitting kung fu and stellar violence. Michael Jai White isn’t a natural comedian—then again, neither was Leslie Nielsen at first—but he holds his own. The jokes just didn’t land for me.
If you want the undisputed O.G. of the genre, the Wayans brothers’ I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) is vastly superior. Eddie Murphy’s Dolemite Is My Name (2019) also packed way more laughs. And if we’re digging into the vault, Mario Van Peebles’ razor-sharp biopic Baadasssss! (2003) is essential viewing. It chronicles his father Melvin making Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)—the gritty masterpiece that kickstarted the entire blaxploitation wave.
2.5/5 ⭐⭐✨
Prime Video (England-VPN).
Day 5: Teenagers! – Tuff Turf (1985)
Neon, Synths, and James Spader on a Bike
The opening is a knockout: James Spader cruising rain-slicked streets, neon bleeding into the asphalt, driven by a heavy 80s synth score. He casually rides through a gang mugging, breaking it up and instantly channeling Walter Hill’s Streets of Fire. For a second, I thought I’d found the film of the year. Sadly, it peaks early.
The setup is pure trope: relocated high school troublemaker Spader falls for the local gang leader’s girl—the exact same crew from the opening. He teams up with a local new wave drummer (a fantastic Robert Downey Jr.), practically begging gang boss Nick Hauser to draw blood.
Aesthetically, it completely nails that gritty 80s vibe. Spader and Downey Jr. alone make it worth the rental. The era-authentic soundtrack hits hard, blending live club gigs and unexpected Grease-style dance numbers with a country club infiltration straight out of John Hughes’ playbook. Before long, it swerves into pure West Side Story violence. It’s a chaotic, stylistic cocktail, but an absolute blast to watch.
3.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐✨
Prime Video (USA-VPN).
Day 6: South Korea! – Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018)
Asylum Live-Streams and Chasing Clicks
Found footage has evolved from grainy tapes to live-streamed clout chasing, and Gonjiam weaponizes this shift perfectly. Channeling the chaotic energy of the indie gem Deadstream (2022), we follow a crew of cynical YouTubers infiltrating a notorious abandoned asylum. Their only compass? The live viewer count.
Rigged with GoPros and high-tech gear, the crew operates under a dangerous illusion of safety. The performative nature of the stream forces these hardcore skeptics to push deeper into the dark, ignoring every red flag to feed the algorithm and farm easy engagement.
Watching their manufactured bravado crumble into raw panic is top-tier entertainment. The cast dynamics click instantly, anchored by the tech-bro captain orchestrating the madness from a multi-monitor basecamp tent. The film walks a razor-thin line between cynical humor and creeping dread, but once the paranormal trap snaps shut, it delivers pure, unrelenting terror. A brilliantly executed nightmare.
4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sett på Prime Video (med USA-VPN).
Day 7: Free Space! – Wake in Fright (1971)
A Personal, Sweaty Nightmare
Wake in Fright isn’t the standard Outback-survival thriller I expected. Instead of a city boy hunted by rural lunatics, it plays like Fear and Loathing dragged through the dusty hellscape of Bundanyabba. We ride shotgun on Grant’s descent into a sweat-soaked, beer-fueled inferno. Beneath the grime, it’s a brutal deconstruction of lost masculinity—watching a civilized man devolve into a feral drunk simply by absorbing the barbaric atmosphere. And Donald Pleasence? He delivers the most unhinged performance ever put to film.
5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PLEX (USA-VPN).
Week 2 program
- 8 – Zombies!
- 9 – Thrillers!
- 10 – Private Eyes!
- 11 – Disasters!
- 12 – Kung Fu!
- 13 – ‘90s Horror!
- 14 – Cannon!