Or, The Evil Within, if you believe the credits. I don't know why I get such a kick out of surprising title changes like that. Apparently there was a video game with that title, so the producers changed it to Mine Games. In this case, they are both pretty bad.
It's hard to talk much about Mine Games without ruining the one thing that makes it kind of interesting. It's still not all that good of a movie, but I don't want to totally kill the experience should you ever come across it. So this entry may be short and cryptic.
Mine Games tries to do something different, but starts with about as generic of a set-up as possible. A group of friends (who seem like they would *maybe* be friends in real-life - so that's a small accomplishment) are headed out to a house in the woods. Now normally, you'd hear cabin - and some people may call this a cabin... but it's actually a Super Nice Home. It always bugs me when people are all like "we're going to our cabin for the weekend" and it's a sparkling luxurious home that is three times bigger than any place I could reasonably ever hope to live in. Just because it's in the woods does NOT mean it's a cabin! I'm not bitter though... (I do not have a cabin.) Anyways, none of them have ever been to said house; and their van breaks down! They walk for a while through the woods and come across the house. There is a note in there for them, so they assume it's the right place. But guess what? It probably isn't - and some shit goes down. And... horror movie.
So, before I get into it, I have to take issue with a couple of things where the filmmakers clearly didn't care too much. First off, check out this "foreboding" newspaper headline - they are getting snacks at a gas station, and instead of some creepy old person warning them stay away, we get this:
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| I too am excited about the murdered couple!! |
This is like 2-and-a-half minutes into the thing, and it doesn't exactly set the best tone. Could you at least pretend to add some text in there or something? This is probably the worst fake newspaper I've ever seen... and who even knows what the twine around it is supposed to be.
Secondly, one of the friends is taking medication for his schizophrenia, and there is no subtlety in reminding you of that fact. If you drank every time someone asked this guy "did you remember to take your medication?" - you'd drink a whole beer, probably. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but it's pretty glaringly obvious in the context of the film. It made me feel like they probably didn't have a lot of respect for the intelligence of their audience.
Throughout most of Mine Games, you're spending time with this group of un-to-moderately likable characters, while they make pretty stupid decisions. (Oddly enough, the "asshole" of the group was probably the most likable to me.) The two most interesting characters are mostly interesting because they have thick accents. So there's that.
The horror/gore stuff isn't anything special - again, Mine Games is pretty concept heavy, and relies mainly on that to carry the film. And while that concept is okay, I feel like it was a one-trick pony. I was saying to myself "Yeah, okay - I get it" once that concept is revealed. And they just keep going back to it again and again. There just isn't enough style or pizzaz to the proceedings to make it worthwhile. The concept they use is a decent base - but there just isn't anything built on it.
I know it kind of sucks to be so vague about things - it feels a little rude to be so vague about "the concept" but go on and on about it... but spoilers and all. It's too bad that it's a pretty competently made movie. Other than the occasional questionable background (there are some seriously sheet-looking walls in the mine), it looks really crisp and is well shot. But it's at the service of a story that is interesting only in a surface-level, gimmicky sense.
You could do a lot worse than Mine Games - the central concept is a little interesting, but it's not enough to save it.
I would not recommend this film.
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