Mine Games

(2012) ***1/2

Seven friends pile into an SUV and drive into the deep woods for a weekend adventure at a friend’s cabin. When they (inevitably) get lost they narrowly miss a man standing in the street and end up crashing their car. Bravely (stupidly) abandoning the vehicle they decide to hike it to safety (they never look for the man they almost hit to see if he is okay). Fortunately the gang stumbles upon their friend’s sprawling cabin, but not their friend and they settle in for a night of Monopoly and by Monopoly I mean booze, drugs and sex and, yes, glorious boobs!


The next day they discover that the cabin is adjacent to an abandoned mine. On one of the boards blocking the front of the mine it says, “Break the cycle”. Inside the mine they find the snake image of the Ouroborus (I had to look it up) which looks like the following,





After exploring the enormous mine they return to the cabin for more fun. Unfortunately TJ (I hate that name) realizes that he left his wallet in the mine (who brings their wallet into a mine?) and returns with Lex (an even worse name) to look for it. Searching the vast labyrinth they discover their own dead bodies in a storage room (!). Meanwhile Rose (a good name if you’re 90) begins having visions of all of her friends as rotting corpses.





Anyone who has seen “Triangle” will quickly surmise that the characters have stumbled into a causality loop. For a low budget film this story is surprisingly smart and psychological as it addresses fate and the choices we make. The characters are believable as friends although I couldn’t stand any of them. Some of the choices they make are stupid (would any of you explore an abandoned mine?) but the story is tightly woven and the exposition at the end neatly wraps up all the loose threads. This one is definitely worth checking out.