Mine Games

A group of college graduate friends on a getaway weekend trip. Time for fun and drinking. As the van breaks down, it's a horror film as they always do, the troupe hoofs it to the nearby cabin to rest up. Upon discovering a nearby mine, the group explores. Spelunking discoveries become eerily ominous. Every trip back to the cabin to regroup provides no relief as does each trip back into the mine. Tension builds steadily throughout, the plot seems thin and weak. Just when you've got it figured out, everything changes. Break the cycle or else. Overall, well thought out and executed. People can always compare Mine Games to this and that but this dig is worth it...

Seven friends on vacation stumble upon an abandoned mine shaft in the middle of a remote forest and live to regret going in.

The film takes a while to get to the action which is a positive as you get to know the characters. To the films benefit most of them aren't so obnoxious you want to see them die, which always adds to any tension a film may build up. Although there aren't any real stand out performers the acting is decent throughout. The production values for a relatively small film are of an impressive standard.

There is a nice air of panic and mystery built up as some of the group slowly to begin see things that they wish they hadn't. This is an unusual story line and is to be applauded for being a bit different. There are a number of unsettling scenes and you never quite know where the film is going to go.

This is a small film that punches above it's weight and is well worth watching.

This movie started off painfully dull. Seven friends are on their way to the woods where there will be

A.) no telephones

B.) no cell phone service and

C.) no other human beings for miles.

Sound familiar? Oh yeah, and on the way to the cabin in the woods (so cliché) their van breaks down. So already I'm half checked out of this movie. The oddities began with the main character, Michael (Joseph Cross), and they only ramped up from there after the gang explored an abandoned mine.

The exposition and build up phase of this movie was dreadfully slow. We were treated to little tidbits of strange activities without giving us the full entree. Though the plot can be readily deduced with all of the hints throughout you still have to be patient to see how it all unfolds. This movie is not unique and it's been done better by others. I will say that the end picked up the pace and delivered a solid finish. Not all questions will be answered, as is typical with this type of movie, but enough to at least make you feel like you were invited to the party.

Four males and three females head out to a vacation home in western Washington to celebrate graduating college, but they discover something disturbing in the nearby abandoned mine. Will any of them make it out alive?

"Mine Games" (2012) is cabin-in-the-woods sci-fi/horror, but not a slasher. It borrows a concept used three years earlier in "Dark Country" and, before that, an episode or two of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Thankfully, it presents it in a different setting and in a fresh way, tied to the ouroboros, the circler symbol of a snake eating its tail, which suggests cyclic renewal, life and death.

The production cost $1,500,000 at the time and is proficiently made, which is a plus seeing as how most cabin-in-the-woods flicks seem to be low-rent. So, this is first rate as far as general filmmaking goes, just with second-tier actors, who are convincing. The problem is that the second act is dramatically dull whereas the first act is an effective enough set-up and the third act is quite compelling with its revelations. The script needed tweaked to make the second act more entertaining, one way or another.

Julianna Guill is notable on the feminine front as blonde Claire, followed closely by Briana Evigan as brunette Lyla. Lindsay Lamb has a small part as blonde Sarah, which includes a fairly overt sex sequence, albeit brief (just a heads up for those who might want to steer clear). On the masculine side of things, Ethan Peck stands out as Guy, the grandson of Gregory Peck.

It runs 1 hour, 32 minutes, and was shot in western Washington at Gifford Pinchot National Forest, which is southeast of Mt. Rainier; Ape Cave, which is five miles due south of Mt. St. Helens; and Seattle.

GRADE: B-

I was burning through some repetitive work with this movie on in the background. I had low expectations, and then IceMan showed up, and then (spoiler) there were some nice boobs which ticked off a checkbox for making a good bad-horror movie. The characters were a bit whack and irrational, but how else are you going to write them into constantly returning to an abandoned mine. There's a beautiful lake nearby, but they're like "Hey, let's go back to the mine and drink more PBR." They try to add some un-reliable narration by introducing a trivial amount of drugs. I was like, "Is that ALL you're going to take? Can you even get buzzed from a couple Tall-Boys?" Standard cookie-cutter characters, but one was British this time, and that was never really explained. Was that a fake accent? It was nice to see the story almost work, but the ending left a lot of unanswered questions, like, "Why is this happening at all in the first place?", and "Why don't they just leave? It's a nice day." All in all, it's kind of like a more enjoyable version of "The Hole", combined with "Vivarium" or something.