Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Abandoned Mine’

Written by Scott Edwards 

Sometimes local legends seem to be a bit farfetched, but there is always something behind them. It might be hard to imagine that a one-armed steel worker is roaming the plant at night, looking for his other arm, or that the ghosts of children killed in a train crash will push your car over the tracks, but that might be the fun in it all. There is always something that happened in your town that nobody wants to let out, but if you are able to get one of the elders talking for a bit, you may find out the secret that your town will be known for. There is no shame in this, as there are always adventure seekers out there that are looking for a good time and if they make it to your town, you will be the one that can spread the tale.

Five friends are looking for something to do on Halloween night and Brad seems to have come up with the perfect outing. Visiting his girlfriend Sharon at her job, he promises a night that they will not soon forget. Although Sharon is best friends with Brad’s ex-girlfriend Laurie, everyone seems to be okay with the relationships moving on, but Brad may not feel the same way overall. Gathering up his friends in the truck, Brad starts down the road to a place everyone has heard horror tales about, the Jarvis Mine.

When he lets the destination slip, Brad is surprised to hear all of the hesitancy coming from his friends and has to beg them to press on. With Laurie’s new boyfriend, Ethan in the back, Brad is looking for anyway to make the foreign exchange student lose his lunch in front of his past love. Arriving at the mine, the group sets up camp at the mouth of the cavern and are all having a great time, until the rain starts, and they have to enter the mine to stay dry. While getting all of their equipment set up again, the group starts wandering around the old mine and find a shaft that runs to one of the lower levels. 

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Being prepared for the adventure of a lifetime with his friends, Brad has cameras hooked up to their helmets and they all start down into the lower levels of the mine. Hearing their radio blasting with no one above them, the group starts to panic, but things get worse when their rope is burned through and they have no way of getting back up to the top level. With only one opening in the crevice, the group has to move on and try to find another way to exit the mine, but there is something lurking in the dark that they did not expect. Preparing to play one of the greatest jokes of his life on his friends, Brad has everything set to go, but he cannot predict what will happen to him and his friends when the moon is up and the spirits have come to play.

Abandoned Mine follows five friends as they are looking to have the time of their life on Halloween night. Brad takes to the driver’s seat and takes his friends to the Jarvis Mine which has an incredible legacy of horror stories surrounding it. Knowing he can get a good scare out of his friends, Brad sets the events of the evening in motion, but does not know when to stop when everyone is scared out of their minds. Although everything seems to be going according to plan, Brad finds out that he and his friends are not the only ones in the mine and when Sharon gets hurt, he needs to get them topside as soon as possible before anything else goes wrong. But with his mind games and scare fest completed, will anyone in the group care about him or his survival when all is said and done?

Just a great teen horror movie that makes you wonder why you never did anything like this in high school. I know why I never did, I was, well, kind of ashamed to say this, but I was too scared to try anything to scare my friends, much less myself. But this movie plays fast and quick when it comes to the scares and storyline. I left out that Brad was just trying to get back together with his ex during the entire movie, but Laurie was having none of it from him, especially when she is frightened out of her mind. Laurie seems to be the anchor in the movie and is part of every scene, regardless if it is scary or a love story and the actress pulls off the role perfectly. I have been sitting on this movie for a while and am very happy it has made it to my small screen, for it is tons of fun and a call back to my young and foolish days. Stay Scared.

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