The Mine

Some people amaze me when they review a movie that they only watched for 15 minutes and automatically rate it the lowest possible score. No way this is a 1 out of 10. It's not even a 3.6 out of 10, which is its current rating. I give it a solid 6, give or take 1 point depending on how graphic you like your horror films to be.

There's no need for me to give the plot outline, it's already been given. For a low budget film, the acting, the lighting, the setting and the story are all above par. And let's not forget it is a bit claustrophobic at times as well. Not as much so as THE DESCENT, but still very good for the small amount of money involved. Again, I would like to give props for the lighting. For a movie like this, set inside an abandoned mine, the lighting couldn't have been any better. Great job all around. Not violent, but very well paced, acted and directed. If nothing else, great fun for the entire family. Kid-friendly stamped and approved.

Basically, you can't get any worse than this. Acting is mediocre at best. Predictability factor was outrageously easy to see what's coming.

Complete waste of time to watch!

This film is massively mediocre. Now that is obviously not a compliment, but it doesn't have to be an insult either.

It has elements of recovered cam shots, but is not a found footage film. It has some elements of horror, but is not scary enough to disturb even the most highly strung small child. It has "coming of age" elements, but you don't really get to know the characters or invest in them enough to care. It's quite cheap, but not funny or "so bad it's good"

This reminded me of a cheaper version of a Dawson's Creek Halloween episode. Which is... OK.

Would I pay to go and see a Dawson Creek Halloween rip off? Hell No! But if it was on Netflix and I was desperately trying to avoid doing some work I might put it on. Actually I did, and it was... OK

"Abandoned Mine" is sort of a scary movie for children. Or at least I hope so, because if this was seriously meant as a horror movie, then it just failed utterly and completely. There was absolutely nothing scary about the movie, aside from the fact it was lacking scared and the level of boredom it managed to invoke.

The story in "Abandoned Mine" is about a group of young friends who go out to an allegedly haunted mine together to celebrate Halloween. They have a good time and goof around, until one of them starts telling the tale that took place one hundred years earlier. And as a storm starts to roll in, the youngsters seek shelter within the mine shaft, and as curiosity gets the better of them, they decide to venture deeper into the mine to have a look around and see if they can scare up some spirits and ghosts for Halloween.

For a family movie, then "Abandoned Mine" would be adequate, as there is no gore, no mutilation, no scary parts, no nothing, in it to upset the viewers. But if you sit here and watch it, hoping it to be a proper horror movie, like I did, you will be sorely disappointed.

As a movie taking place in a haunted mine, there never was any sense of dread, claustrophobia or panic to be felt throughout the movie. Whether it was because of a fairly weak storyline or because the actors failed to portray such emotions, well I am most likely to say because of the lack of a proper storyline.

The people hired for the roles in "Abandoned Mine" were doing good enough jobs with their given characters, although they just didn't have much to work with.

If you want to be properly entertained by one of the spelunking horror movies, your money would be better spent on either of the "The Descent" movies. "Abandoned Mine" failed on many levels.

And it's pretty clear from the initial scene that this is a B movie all the way. Though the rating should give it away with only a PG-13. In my experience, new movies with high budgets tend to go in for gore, which means an R rating. However, I love B movies and the hokiness that comes with them (and find fear is not based on disgust), so I gave this one a try. The overall movie was decent to be sure. There were the typical stereotypes (dumb jock, cool jock, comical Indian, dumb blond, smart blond with short hair) and they were done well-ish. Though I will admit to finding every joke made at the expense of the Indian guy a bit much within the first 5 minutes of his appearance.

The real problem was in plot development. It was one of those where the writers clearly were unsure how to end the film after they gave an actually well done and surprising twist. They do play with time so separate events overlap at the end so you get numerous perspectives and that was really well done and entertaining. But the plot itself just sort of ended without a nice tie up. If that doesn't bug you, then give this one a try. However, I will warn you that you ought to keep the remote handy for fast forwarding in the beginning. The character development is long and since the film takes place at Halloween, viewers are forced to watch a montage of five minutes (but felt like an eternity) of two girls trying on costumes. Unless they are drag queens (and they aren't) there is no realistic way for two average white girls to have that many current Halloween costumes. It that sort of unbelievability that kills a B movie since they have so much less to work with. I relied on fast forward to take me through and I wasn't totally disappointed that I did continue on.