By Melissa Antoinette Garza
When I first started watching Abandoned Mine, I was pleasantly surprised. The characters were different from one another, the dialogue was witty, the setting was decent and there was a quick urgent pace from the start.
The story surrounds a jerk quarterback named Brad (Reilly McClendon) who invites his high school friends to a Halloween celebration involving the exploration of an abandoned and supposedly haunted mine.
He invites his best friend Jim (Adam Hendershott), his girlfriend Sharon (Alexa PenaVega), and her best friend which also awkwardly is his ex-girlfriend Laurie (Saige Thompson). Laurie brings her friend Ethan (Charan Prabhakar) who actually has a different name which no one can pronounce, so he just goes by Ethan. By far, he is the best character. He’s hilarious and has a cool back-story that is revealed near the end.
The group descends into the haunted mine for fun, but is trapped when the rope is burned and falls to the ground. Brad doesn’t believe in ghosts and doesn’t take the seriousness of their situation with the regard it deserves. He plays stupid practical jokes which really take out of the movie. The fact that his friends don’t kill him for that is just not believable. Sharon gets irritated but the for the most part everyone laughs it off.
There are a few very tense scenes that are done quite well. Both the plot regarding the haunting and the events that transpire while in the mine while trapped bring about some really great fear inducing moments.
It also wasn’t a found-footage movie which I applaud. It did at times utilize recordings from cameras placed on the safety helmets to give glimpses into what occurred prior to the actual scenes, and also used it to explain events that had already taken place. This didn’t bother me too much. It actually reminded me of Book of Shadows: Blair Witch Project 2, which I absolutely love. I know many trash that movie, but I encourage viewers to give that movie another chance. I’d watch that before this any day. Still, Abandoned Mine wasn’t horrible.
The issues arise during the second half of the film. To go into the problems, I’d have to give away certain aspects. I’ll simply say that certain characters reveal themselves to be more than unrealistic and stupid. That compounded with serious plot-holes that are left unresolved and unanswered.
Overall, if you’re bored and have a Netflix account, you certainly can do worse. At the very least, I would like to see more from Charan Prabhakar as he cracked me up even through the worse parts of the movie. He was the only one I cared about and I was just keeping my fingers crossed that he survived. I won’t ruin the conclusion or give away who the casualties are as some may want to view it.
Scared Stiff Rating: 5/10 – Average Modern Horror
