Thursday, July 16, 2015

Abandoned Mine (2013)



Number Rolled: 29
Movie Name/Year: Abandoned Mine (2013) [ IMDb page is under “The Mine” ]
Genre: Horror
Length: 95 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Production Companies: Mountainbridge Films
Executive Producer: Mark Victor, Scott Woldman, Steve Zacharias
Director: Jeff Chamberlain
Writer: Jeff Chaimberlain, Scott Woldman
Actors: Reiley McClendon, Adam Hendershott, Valerie C. Walker, Jordan Chamberlain, Cody Walker, Alexa PenaVega, Saige Thompson, Charan Prabhakar, Jeff Chamberlain, Joseph Batzel, Sierra Taylor

It’s Halloween and Brad wants to bring his friends somewhere special to acknowledge the frightful night. They all get dressed up and head out to a haunted mine.

Selina’s Point of View:
Some movies make you sigh halfway through. Others start out that way. This is one of those others.

About five minutes into the film I knew exactly where the story was going. In fact, there’s an 80’s movie that Abandoned Mine was practically modeled after. That 80’s movie is one of my favorite films, but I can’t say the name of it without revealing the entire plot of this film. Although I wouldn’t exactly recommend this movie to anyone, I still don’t want to give spoilers.

Abandoned Mine didn’t only remind me of that 80’s film I mentioned, it also vaguely reminded me of House of the Dead (2003). Not the video game (which is awesome), but the terrible movie directed by Uwe Boll (Assault on Wall Street, Blubberella, Bloodrayne).

The reason I made that mental connection is because of these flashes of unnecessary footage that blinked into the story line and kept me from getting connected to absolutely anyone. There are times when a flashback, or flash-forward, can really help a movie. I feel like this one suffered for it.

That said, I’ve got nothing good to say about this film. I love Alexa PenaVega (Nashville, The Tomorrow People, Repo! The Genetic Opera), but even she wasn’t at her best.

Cat’s Point of View:
One thing I love about these random movies is that it brings me to films that I might not have otherwise seen. I hadn’t even heard of this one before.

As I was watching, I knew that I recognized the actress that played Sharon from somewhere before. Then it hit me – I’d seen Alexa Vega (Machete Kills, The Clockwork Girl, The Devil's Carnival) in lots of things before, usually in Danny Trejo (Machete Kills, Bad Ass, Muppets Most Wanted) movies. She’s come a long way from Spy Kids (2001).

The beginning of the movie was interesting, with the cut scenes of what might be ‘found footage.’ It sets you up rather well to know that something wonky is going to happen to these teens going into the ‘old haunted mine.’

It piqued my curiosity enough to wonder if the recordings were found at a later time or if someone actually survived to replay them later. Other than that, it’s pretty predictable that something was going to go horribly wrong with this Halloween excursion.

The ending left me with the feeling of ‘oh man, that’s messed up.’ Overall, in the grand scheme of horror movies, it was okay. It’s not one I’d be running to watch again, however.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 20%

Netflix’s Prediction for Selina – 1.9/5
Selina’s Trust-the-Dice Score1/5

Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 2/5
Cat’s Trust-the-Dice Score 2.5/5

P.S. There’s an extra scene just after the start of the credits.

Movie Trailer:

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