Mine Games (2012) starring Briana Evigan, Rebecca Da Costa, Julianna Guill, Joseph Cross directed by Richard Gray Movie Review

Mine Games (2012)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Briana Evigan in Mine Games (2012)

Never Ending Circles

Having finished college a group of friends head out in to the woods for a summer get away, but along the way they all most run down a yokel and wreck their camper van in the process, forcing them to walk through the dark to find the cabin in the woods where they are staying. The next morning two of them have discovered an old mine and bring the rest down to explore although they return to the cabin when they experience a series of strange things which they can't get their heads around. But after some pondering they return again and experience more strange things but this time they find themselves in danger as they try to make sense of what they encounter.

Let me start by saying that I read somewhere than "Mine Games" was made on just a $700,000 budget and when you take that in to account then it is not terrible. Yes the look gives it away as being low budget but it does some good things with what money it had and certainly the actual cabin in the woods is an impressive building. But take the budget out of the equation and I can't say that "Mine Games" really wowed me with a pace which at times felt pedestrian with scenes which did nothing to advance the story but instead padded it out to reach, in this case, the 92 minute mark.

Joseph Cross in Mine Games (2012)

Then there is what happens and whilst I won't go in to detail I will say that "Mine Games" is a mix of premonitions with a looper element which if you don't know what I mean may lead to you enjoying this a lot more that I did. But the combination of premonition and looper is not new and other movies have explored this better although this does have some nice touches such as the scene where two of the guys find dead bodies in the cave. The trouble is that also in the tradition of cabin in the woods movies these guys and girls do some really dumb stuff, when strange things happen and people start to freak they don't leave like a sane person would, nope they head back in to the old mine.

And then there is the acting and I will admit I am quite fond of Briana Evigan and she does her best with a character that has no depth, the same can be said of all the characters as the only depth we get is that one of them is on meds for psychotic behaviour whilst another has some sort of ability as a Medium. But whilst a couple of characters are engaging some are downright annoying and sadly Rafi Gavron as Lex delivers one of the most annoying characterisations I have ever come across to the point I couldn't take the movie seriously because I couldn't believe how anyone could put up with him.

What this all boils down to is that "Mine Games" didn't do it for me and not only did I find it a drawn out movie where people do stupid things but also a movie which works ideas which other movies have explored and done a better job of doing it.


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