I’m sure (spy) kids will enjoy this more than adults…
I think this is an example of a film that thinks it’s more clever than it actually is, because aside from a twist at the end, that wasn’t much of a twist to begin with, being as formulaic as the story itself, meaning we’ve seen it all before — only better. Admittedly, this is Jeff Chamberlain’s directorial debut, and being the case, I think he’s done a decent job, but this movie didn’t give me a lift of any kind, feeling rather flat and lifeless in too many places. It’s far from a bad film, but missing some key ingredient to lift it from mediocrity, but what kept me watching, was some fine acting from these young adults. And Alexa Vega of course. I’m sure of one thing though, it will be far more popular with younger folk than us old forty somethings who prefer meat on our bones.
- Abandoned Mine
- Director
Jeff Chamberlain - Cast
Alexa Vega, Reiley McClendon, Saige Thompson - Release Date
15 August, 2013 - Influx Grade: C+
The cast was certainly good but I question some of the writing with our Indian character Ethan (Charan Prabhakar), with cow praying and the extremely bad “I thought we were going to see a haunted MIME” gag that almost had me switching off. Really guys? Seriously? There were other such small matters but I won’t dwell on inconsequentialities to the tale. The other thing was the lack of subtlety, spoon-feeding us everything, not allowing for the fact that we might be intelligent enough to work things out for ourselves.
*****
Aside from that, the film was fine, production values were ok, but the devils in the details, and there were definitely no devils to be found in the mine, with brand new looking wood, and rope, and bulbs, and generators etc. 100 year-old you say? Might as well give you the premise. A group of friends go out to an abandoned haunted mine (I said mine, not a mime) to celebrate Halloween. They have helmets with cameras fixed to them, as is the custom in horrors these days, but after entering and exploring a bit, they get stuck after a rope mysteriously breaks. They are now forced to go through the mine and eventually start dying. To keep us on our toes, one has asthma, and one is claustrophobic. Did I mention Alexa Vega is in it? Just saying.
