Movie Review: Mine Games (2012)

Synopsis: A group of young friends travel to a remote cabin, hiking part of the trip after a near miss with a pedestrian causes them to damage their van. They explore an abandoned mine until some strange occurrences cause them to get scared. Soon after, they experience some strange occurrences, including finding their own bodies inside the mine, an indication something bad is about to happen. 

Who's in it? The movie stars Joseph Cross, Briana Evigan, Rafi Gavron, Julianna Guill and Rebecca Da Costa.

Review: I let my wife pick out Friday night's movie and, after scrolling through a few options on Amazon Prime, she picked this one out. Overall, it ended up being a better choice than expected.

There honestly isn't anything overly special about the plot of the movie, it's very similar to other films we've seen before. A lot of the movie also tends to be somewhat predictable, including the main twist, which I figured out only a few minutes into the film. I even correctly called my shot to my wife.

That said, the execution of this movie was still pretty good. The film does a good job building up some suspense while also keeping some parts of the plot a mystery. One thing, in particular, the movie doesn't answer, for example, is whether or not they wound up at the right cabin.

The parts with the mine were exactly what I would expect them to be, dark and claustrophobic, something that always adds an extra element to a film even when there's not a whole lot of action because you always are left wondering if there's going to be a cave in or something. I'm also going to give the movie some credit for not being over the top with the gratuitous nudity. Other than one sex scene (which really wasn't needed), the focus was on the events happening at the cabin and mine and the psychological effects.

Plus, even though I figured out the main surprise twist, it was still kind of cool watching the events play out and seeing how some of the clues they discovered earlier fit in with the story.

I think my biggest problem with this film was the beforementioned predictability. Some of it couldn't be avoided. Other parts were somewhat intentional. This includes the killer, which is revealed pretty much immediately. This is a film that could have used a surprise twist in that regard, either by having the presumed killer be a red herring or that person having an accomplice. I also would have loved to see a much better motive than the person being mentally ill.

Final Opinion: It's not a great movie and does have some flaws. However, there were just enough good things about this film to make it watchable and we didn't hate it.

My Grade: C+