Mine Games

Plot synopsis:
A group of friends is on vacation. Michael (Joseph Cross) and Lyla (Briana Evigan) are a couple, as are TJ (Alex Meraz) and Claire (Julianna Guill). Guy (Ethan Peck) and Rose (Rebecca Da Costa) appear to be unattached and just friends. TJ's cousin Lex (Rafi Gavron) is along for the ride because Lex's dad killed himself. Rose is a "medium, and a damn good one". They are expected at their friends' cabin at 6:00, according to early dialog, but that is potentially a script issue because it is long after 6PM when things go sideways given the summer attire and darkness of night.They stop at a gas station to get food. Here we see a "newspaper headline" declaring that a couple was found murdered in their RV (ref 0).While driving to the cabin in the dark (about three miles from it), they see someone in the middle of the road (ref 1); they swerve off the road to avoid this person, but apparently rupture their radiator. The van sputters to a stop about a "mile" down the road. The friends see the liquid streaming out of the van's engine and take off on foot towards the cabin.After some amount of walking we learn that Michael is taking meds (anti-psychotics as we later learn he is schizophrenic) and left them in the van. While walking they see something like the Aurora Borealis (ref 2) although they say they are too far south for the actual northern lights display.The group sees a house with lights on. Two of the friends (TJ and Rose) go up to the front door, knock, and try the handles, which are locked (ref 3). They decide to go around back. While going around they hear a noise (ref 4). They find the back door open, and go inside. There they find a note telling TJ, Lex, and Clair to sty here; they will be back soon (ref 5). They assume this was from Matt and Sarah even though only addressed to half of the group, and so head into the house to stay.TJ and Michael go out to fix a failing generator by adding more gasoline (ref 6). The group drinks but Guy hears something outside, which is followed by a loud thump (ref 7). The group posits it might have been a racoon, then goes outside to check it out. Michael finds another half-full gasoline tank and decides to put it in the generator as well; we next see him confused next to the generator as someone is running off (ref 8). Michael heads off to bed.We next catch up with Matt (Michael Guillod) and Sarah (Lindsay Lamb), who are in their RV in the woods "lost". They say the group might miss them, but won't be able to find the driveway in the dark. So, sex.Afterwards, someone appraoches the RV from the darkness, stabs Matt, then heads inside and we hear Sarah screaming (ref 9) (see ref 0).Michael dreams of his friends in a mine (ref 10), throwing a body down stairs (ref 11), and being taunted by his friends in a mine some more. He wakes up with Lyla next to him.The next morning, Rose asks Michael where he went wandering off to in the middle of the night (ref 12). Lex finds a bunch of mining gear in a closet. TJ comes across the mine entrance while out walking.Lex and Rose take mushrooms on the way to the mine.The mine entrance has "Break the cycle" scrawled alongside it (ref 13).Rose has strange feeling before going in.Inside the mine they see an Oroboris drawn on the wall (ref 14).Lex and Rose separate from the group presumably to scare them later on; Lex claims that the shaft they are in just comes around in a big circle, proving he's never seen a layout of an actual mine.While the larger group is crossing a wooden bridge they come across a rotted-out broken section (ref 15) and decide to turn back. They hear some noises in the area.Lex and Rose hit a dead end and decide to go back. Rose hears something at the dead end. Michael, TJ, and Guy come across a small closet with a metal door. Michael goes in and sees "This is the first time" written in red crayon on the wall (ref 16). His friends shut the door behind him as a joke, but the door jams shut. Eventually they open it again.Rose sees fresh blood on the floor of the mine and runs. She sees something in a section of the mine (ref 17), but while investigating something which she somehow identifies as a girl (we learn later) grabs her leg (ref 18). Her screams reunite the group.Back at the cabin, Rose sees large scrapes on her leg that no one else does.Michael heads back to the van, with Lyla in tow. Michael asks Lyla if she thinks anyone would hurt him, then if Lyla would stop them if they did. Back at the van, they see the van door left open (ref 19). The van still doesn't start, but they notice a large blood spatter and broken headlight on the passenger side front (ref 20).The group decides they should stick it out for a little more waiting for Matt and Sarah to come back.Lex says he dropped his wallet in the mine, so they Lex and TJ head back to find it. Lex and TJ play with the mine carts.Rose, Lyla and Claire research the Oroboris (ref 21) (see ref 14). Rose heads outside with a bad feeling. She sees the scrapes on her leg looking infected. She sees visions of people running, then sees someone (Guy? See ref 31) running at her from the woods. She runs inside as her imagined stalker slams against the door leaving a bloody handprint (that disappears). She says seeing spirits doesn't usually affect her like this (ref 22).Michael sends the others (Lyla, Claire, Guy) off swimming while he stays with Rose (ref 23).Back at the mine Lex and TJ drink beer while looking for his wallet. They find a closet with a metal door and key (ref 24).Michael tells Rose he is going to take care of her.TJ and Lex go down some stairs and see a bunch of old TNT; they wisely do not kick the boxes. Lex sees some burlap and nudges it. An arm falls out from under the sheet, with his tatoo. He pulls the burlap away to see his own dead body underneath (ref 25). TJ pulls a different burlap sheet away to find his own dead body, then they find Guy's (ref 26). The two run away back to the house.While Claire, Lyla, and Guy are returning to the house, Rose screams. They ask Michael what he did, and Rose is inconsolable. At this time TJ and Lex come back saying they saw their own bodies in the mine.Guy, Lex, and TJ head back to the mine. Michael and Claire follow along, leaving Lyla at the house to tend to Rose. Rose has visions of Michael moving mine carts and bodies being dragged. Rose says that the mine is not "our world".The group sees the bodies in the mine.Rose sees Lyla with wounds all over her body; from now on she sees everyone in this way. Rose says "Break the cycle" repeatedly.It is night again. The lights flicker as the group looks over Rose (ref 27). The group discusses the possibilities, including a number of cliche'd movie plots. TJ and Lex decide to go back to the mine again. Michael asks them what they are planning, but does not appear to be included in their plans.Someone (presumably Michael) makes tea and squirts something into it from under the kitchen sink. We see Michael bouncing a ball in his room, then he discovers a red crayon (see ref 16).In the mine, TJ and Lex hear muffled sobbing coming from behind yet another metal door. They open the door and find Claire huddled with a knife of some sort. She says she saw TJ dying. She says they can't help Michael. Lex calls TJ out, while Claire pleads with them to not leave her there. Lex says the Clair TJ loves is back in the house, convincing TJ to leave the other one in the mine.At the house, Lyla wakes Rose up to feed her something. Claire comes in and asks how Rose is. Rose sees them both as dead. Rose says "stop Michael", then passes back out.Michael drops a bag out his window.TJ and Lex return. TJ, Lex, Claire, Lyla, and Guy discuss Claire #2 in the mine. Claire is glad they left her there. Lex reveals what Claire #2 said.When TJ and Lex come up with rope to deal with Michael he says this is how is happens. The group is all upset that Michael seems to know more about what is happening than the rest. With his wrists bound, the grop votes to confine him in the mine. Along the way they see the Aurora Borealis in the sky again (ref 28) (see ref 2). Michael says "this is the second time" (ref 29). Lyla reveals to Claire that Michael had expected the group to turn on him. They take him to the room with the key (see ref 24) and lock him in (ref 30).Rose walks into the room horrified to see everyone's "dead" bodies. She says Michael has escaped.Back at the mine, Michael walks along the wooden bridge. There is no broken section in the bridge, just a spongy rotted area (see ref 15).Claire, TJ, and Lex head off to the mine to check on Michael.Lyla and Guy stay at the house with Rose. Guy wants to leave, but Lyla won't leave Rose. Rose, however, has a convulsion and dies.Claire, TJ, and Lex discover the locked closet open and no Michael to be found. They then see Michael down the shaft and give chase (see ref 10). Michael leads them across the wooden bridge, being careful to stay along the outside edge of the rotted area. Lex follows without that level of care, breaks through the floor, and falls to his death (see ref 15). TJ and Claire keep looking for Michael in the cave. Michael drops something heavy on TJ, apparently killing him. Claire wanders into a room, and Michael closes the door behind her; we see this is the same room where Claire #2 had been found.With Rose dead, Lyla and Guy choose to leave (see ref 3). They decide to leave a note to TJ, Lex, and Claire telling them they will be back, which Guy writes (note he hadn't seen the note originally so didn't recognize his own handwriting). (See ref 5) Lyla and Guy head down the road. Guy sees the van heading towards them on the road and tells Lyla to stay off to the side while he waves his hands in the middle of the street. The van swerves to miss him and runs over Lyla before continuing on (see ref 20). Lyla is still alive but appears to be in very bad shape. Guy says he thinks he can warn the van and break the cycle, apologizes to Lyla, and leaves her by the side of the road.Back at the mine, Michael gathers the bodies together to hide them under burlap (see ref 25). He writes "This is the first time" in the cell where he had been held the first time (note that the writing was not there at this time). He heads back to the house, replaces the crayon in the drawer, then finds Rose's body. Hearing TJ and Rose outside, he bundles Rose up and dumps her into the basement (see ref 4 and ref 11).Guy runs along the road back to where the van had been left. He opens the front door (see ref ref 19) and drinks from a bottle of water. He makes it back to the house (ref 31), and just before or while knocking is knocked out (see ref 7 for noise) by Michael. The new group comes out to investigate. Michael slices Guy's throat then drags him down to the mine entrance. Guy scrawls "Break the cycle" using his own blood (see ref 13).Michael gets back to the house and confronts Michael from the next group. He tells him he can not trust Lex, TJ, Guy, and Claire. He says they are going to lock him up in an abandoned mine twice (see ref 16), and that the second time (see ref 29) they have no intention of letting him out alive. He says to defend himself or he will be killed. He hands him the key to the door in which he will be locked (see ref 30). Michael from the next group watches our Michael leave, confused (see ref 8).Michael tidies up Guy's body by dragging him into the mine along with the others (see ref 26).Lyla sees the Aurora Borealis while laying on the road.Michael comes up to the RV in the woods. Seeing Matt outside, he sneaks up and then stabs him. He goes inside with a bloody cleaver to finish off Sarah (see refs 9 and 0).Rose from the next group wakes up and looks outside and sees Michael walking through the yard (see ref 12). Next we see Michael at a campfire in the woods with another version of himself (real or imagined?). He burns his anti-psychotics.The next morning a third group is at the gas station when a bloody Lyla stumbles up to the van and slams against it, which might finally break the cycle.

Tags: paranormal, murder

Review:
A bunch of friends on vacation in the country discover a disused mine and find something most strange down in its depths.It starts off in conventional fashion, pretty looking youngsters head off to a large cabin in the woods and after nearly running someone down in the road, they arrive at their destination but nothing is as it seems.
The story then spins into another dimension, cribbing from better movies like Triangle and Identity, only the screenplay isn't strong enough to make a success of it, even confusing itself in the process.Things aren't helped by director and co-writer Richard Gray padding out the movie to meet the required run time to call it a feature length production.
There's a modicum of interest value here for those who like the films already mentioned above, but it's not a comfortable recommendation at all.
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.
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 a small film that punches above it's weight and is well worth watching..
'Mine Games' tells the tale of seven (typically good-looking American) teens who, while on vacation, stumble upon a mine.
They just return to their nearby house to 'think things over.' Then, rather than deciding to leave, they return to the mine where the visions get even more nasty and intense.Guess what happens next?
This continues for the best part of the film, i.e. every time they go to the mine, they simply go home again, despite the obvious thing to do being to get the hell out of here.In fact, I was on the brink of switching it off.
In the last ten minutes or so the film does explain all the little things you might have wondered during its ninety minutes runtime (besides the fact that no one thought to leg it!), so I can see the 'point' the film-makers were trying to make.You may already tell by now that I didn't think much of the film.
There are definitely a million better horror films out there.
Unlike the seven protagonists in Mine Games, for they would – no doubt – turn a bad film off, sit there for a moment, then watch it all over again.
Love mind bending movies that make you think, and I must say this is one of the better ones I have seen lately and I am glad that I did.The writing and story was top notch, kept us guessing, and intriguing.
I never had any issue with the acting and it drew me in very well.This starts off looking like it will be a traditional horror movie.
At least not anything like any films I have seen.Kudos and props for originality, and also being able to tell a well told story.
I do hope that this team makes more films, and they have more stories up their sleeves to tell.It has also love the kinds of movies that show young people and how they behave, including how men act around each other.
Oh yeah, and on the way to the cabin in the woods (so cliché) their van breaks down.
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.
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..
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.
This film actually seems promising early on before you realize that that there was no vision, no actual plot, and no way to make sense of it without writing your own replacement screenplay.
The acting, cinematography, and direction were good, particularly on a low budget, but wasted on on a terrible screenplay.
Don't bother watching this movie - break the cycle..
Boom, this movie comes up right behind you and clocks you in the back of your knees, then forces you to watch it so you don't stay up at night thinking "But what about that thing", even though you will end up staying up at night wondering why the hell you still watched this terrible excuse for a film anyway.90% of the film is underlit and the only reason you can see anything in dark scenes is because of the extreme amount of film grain in it.This movie relies on bad stereotypes to give the watcher a sense of depth to the characters, but the director might as well have told the actors to all talk in a monotone because it would have given the movie a reason to be watched..
Like Cabin in the Woods, it's not a horror film!
Cabin in the Woods and Mine Games both prove this by leading you on a merry journey expecting one type of film when in fact you're watching something completely different.
Cabin isn't a horror film it's a sci-fi fantasy.
Mine Games isn't a horror film it is a survival adventure.
And with a clever premise, immersive sets, and a soundtrack and sound effects that seem to take the movie seriously, I unfortunately must join every other reviewer and ask the question: Who above a 3rd grade education spends an entire mountain vacation exploring spooky abandoned mines?
We could have built the same plot turns in the setting of the beautiful cabin and surrounding woods.
Like Time Lapse and Parallels, I walked away from the movie with the simultaneous need to watch it again and the wish that the movie could have been more.
I hope future filmmakers feel the same way and continue to think outside the box like Mine Games but with better results..
There are just so many things wrong with Mine Games from the beginning to the very last second.
The script is weak and bland, every cliché you could possibly think of was present, the decisions the characters made were not just "typical horror movie bad decisions that people make when they're scared and not thinking straight" kind of decisions, they were just decisions that would specifically keep the movie from stopping in its own tracks.
I haven't seen a movie with this amount of carelessness and large quantity of plot holes in a while.
If you look at my other reviews, you'll see that I'm extremely generous when it comes to rating films, probably TOO generous.
I would not go as far to say this is a terrible movie because you can tell that director Richard Gray tried to get creative and have some fun with this so I do respect that he tried to create something unique in such a repetitive world of film.
It upsets me that someone didn't tell this guy about all these silly and avoidable mistakes that he was making throughout the course of the pre-production and production of this film.
I do not recommend you watch this if you cringe at plot holes, clichés, and absent resolutions..
Good little movie for mind bender alternate reality fans.
I happen to love this type of premise, which is somewhat mind bending and converges alternate realities.If you liked Triangle or Coherence, you would like this.
I think it's right on par with Triangle, but not as good as Coherence, but that is my opinion.
If you are a time traveling or alternate reality mind bender junkie, you will absolutely enjoy this ride.
Just watched this on Sky Movies - nothing else to do on a Saturday morning ;) I went in to it expecting another flashy slasher pic set in a dark place so was pleasantly surprised to see a different take on a normally standard horror film scenario.Yes it is another cabin in the woods with another bunch of young beautiful holiday makers on a drug and drink fueled break in the middle of nowhere.
Yet, it does work a little bit better than others, it just needed to have a more solid storyline in terms of the cycle.As the second half kicked in, most people would begin to realize that the things you've seen are things that are about to happen.
It's tight but not tight enough to make me say wow; It is however well worked out and everything has its place.And then I saw the budget - $1.5m - you can hardly make a TV episode on that nowadays so the overall finished product is very good.
The directing is pretty good, the acting is as you would expect.
The standouts for me were the lighting within the mines themselves and the music is above average for this type of movie.One thing that really annoyed me though was the character of Rose, I couldn't really put a finger on it save to say that she made no sense whatsoever!
I don't understand why she needed to be in the film and the reason for her visions apart from being on drugs is never explained.I revert back to 'Triangle' again where the ending of the film is a perfect nod to the start of the next sequence but the ending of 'Mine Games' is pretty terrible and in terms of the cycle make no sense.
I like films to ask questions and I like to see something different from the usual clobber we get.
'Mine Games' doesn't really stand out and there are far superior films of this niche out there.However for the budget and the production quality, the filmmakers have done a good job and for a Saturday morning when it's a choice between this and 'Muppets from Space', I'd go for this.And it isn't the first time I said that...
A different 'cabin in the woods' type of movie.
This has a group seeing pieces of the future, and so, by it's nature, leaves the story untold, as the present turns into the future.
It's nice to say it has few of those 'dumb blond' moves typically seen in horror films.
The low IMDb rating of 4.7 is probably because it's a weird approach to the 'cabin in the woods' story line.
There is no lag in the time span from when the film starts to when the action begins.
The film isn't an all out high production thrill ride but it maintains a steady, entertaining pace filled with creepiness, and excitement.
The style is pretty standard as far as horror direction and character definition but the unique blended nature, adding time/space situation on top of mythology, keeps the "cabin in the woods" set-up from being cliché or boring.
The cast deliver pretty believable characters, they are stereotypes scene in horror, however Gray and the writers give enough material to allow the characters feel authentic, convincing, and relatable.
A lot of horror films either play up the clichés until they look clownish or create characters that not even fiction could make believable as friends.
There isn't an exploitative nature to the gore or deaths, but what is scene on film comes across realistic looking.
The shadowy nature and fact that almost all of the scenes are in nearly dark areas, or at night, gives the film most of it's spooky quality.
With all the gimmicky, modern methods of handhelds, shaky cam shots, or first person view points, it is nice to see some aspects of classic horror story telling style still used.
Not that I have a problem with fresh, innovative filming techniques like first person POV or found-footage.
It will not appeal to all horror fans, and there is plenty to get the intellectuals stirred up, with the whole time/space-Ouroboros aspects of the story.
Personally I spent a lot of the film wondering what exactly was the real deal happening- was it a "Soul Survivors" situation or was it a take similar to "Triangle".
Not much though, and the time until the ending-when it all becomes clear- isn't all that long, so "Mine Games" works pretty much from start to finish..
Bunch of young people out for a good time go where they're not supposed to.
Engaging psychological horror thriller mystery about a group of young people who get caught in a "loop of time" in a remote area in the woods.
So they meet the future condition of themselves in a nearby mine but don't understand it; don't realize they are in a loop ahead of, and behind themselves in time.
The loop begins (and ends) with an accident as they near their vacation destination: an elaborate cabin in the woods.
Possibly this looping of time could have been a harmless anomaly and meeting yourself of the future or the past (again, depending on perspective) might have been a weirdly pleasant and innocuous experience except that one of the members of the group (4 guys, 3 women) has mental problems and is taking medication for it.
A group of friends stumble across an abandoned mine, while on vacation.
There's something eerily peculiar about said mine though and it wastes no time getting the group all discombobulated with it's timey-wimey shenanigans Highly reminiscent of "Triangle", but not as nearly accomplished as that film.
The insipid number has a group of unlikable characters and a script struggling too hard to be clever that it falls over it's own feet several times.
A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."Mine Games" (NR - 2012 - US)Sub-Genre: Paranormal/PsychoMy Score: 5.8Cast=6 Acting=5 Plot=4 Ending=7 Story=6 Scare=6 Jump=5 F/X=5 Creep=7 Psycho=7A group of young friends make an incomprehensible discovery in an abandoned mine, but the more they try to change the future, the more they seal their fate.
The deeper you go, the darker it gets reads the tagline for a movie that tries to be two separate stories.
You start with the whole cabin in the woods concept...but then you get an almost sci-fi element with the mine and the visuals within.
This is a horror movie fan's idea of 'fast food'...yeah normally you want a steak, but sometimes you just grab a cheeseburger and chow down.
If one could look pass the horrid clichés, basic acting, and boobs, this movie would be quite enjoyable.
MINE GAMES has something going for it, I'll admit that: it's a film that at least tries to do something different from the usual low budget American B-movie horror flick.
Instead this has much in common with the likes of TRIANGLE and the (excellent) Spanish film TIMECRIMES in that it deals with characters who find themselves trapped in a time loop, forced to repeat the same actions over and over again.Unfortunately it's much worse than either of those films mentioned, thanks in part to a muddled story which doesn't make a whole lot of sense when you think about it closely.
A group of unappealing characters head off into the wilderness for a break, only to visit a creepy abandoned mine which messes with their heads.
One bizarre event after another makes them realise that something REALLY odd is going on.The execution of this film is very poor, particularly in terms of the cinematography.
Much of it is too dark so you end up squinting at the screen trying to figure out what's going on.
The director is too obsessed with shooting this like a slasher film - bumping off his cast members one at a time - when instead he should be focusing on the novel stuff, not the predictable..
Richard Gray is director, co-writer and co-producer of this cabin in the woods film.
A group of friends set out on a little trip to a mutual friend's cabin in the woods.
Now lost in the dark, Lyla, Claire, Lex, Rose, TJ and Guy on foot reaches their destination...a nicely furnished cabin deep in the woods.
And what is found turns this movie a little creepy, well...a lot creepy.
Now comes paranoia and psychotic reactions to some time travel.What started out as ho-hum turns into entertaining.
Filmed in Seattle, Washington with minor special effects and acting.
After reading the movies summary,I thought it had a potentially good chance at being a good flick.Even considering it wasn't a title I'd heard of before,I did consider this to be(& I still do,After watching it),more of the "B- Movie",but noticed it had a decent amount for the budget,which I figured given the genres(Horror,Sci- Fi,Thriller)might make for a decently made movie even w/havin actors I'd really not heard of.When it came to after watching the actual movie,is another story.It wasn't necessarily bad,I would rate it more between 6to7 Stars,to be fair yet alil generous.I say this because at times,even when I watch a movie,depending on my mood(kinda like taste buds/cravings)it can influence how well I liked it,&what I did or didn't like about it,overall.I know that there's only so much that's already expected when you do movies that are horror in some way,that most people can expect the movie will have happen.Not to give spoilers away,but I will say that ya,like in the summary,strange if not creep you out &/or scary things happened.Some of it is"repetitive"I guess is the closest word that I can think of,but does lead you to more of what happens,all through the film to the ending.I will say that given the roughly $1.5M budget,I feel like it was money they could've done more to have made the movie better with all of the resources they might've taken advantage of.That is IMHO,anyways.Otherwise w/all that said,I hope you give this movie a try(I know as of current,&noticed for awhile too,this is also avail.