It's hard for older persons such as myself to enjoy teen movies. The real problem as I see it for The Mine is that these teens are not 14 but more like 18, and one has just done pre-med, implying she's intelligent. Her excuse is that she's still in love with the lead bloke. The love triangle is actually quite adult and sweet. The story, basically, is pretty solid and nouveau, but it would have made way more sense for theses kids to have been 12. Now that would have made this movie a work of genius. They decide to party at Halloween outside an abandoned mine, one that is known to be traitorous, and one where many have met misfortune or just disappeared over the last 100 years. So obviously it's a dangerous mine. First problem. Why then is there barely a sign or proper seal to prevent entry to the mine? Second problem. Why are these kids out in the wilderness without checking the weather forecast? Third problem. Why do they agree to enter the mine rather than go back to their car when a thunderstorm strikes? At least they agree, sensibly, to only go in as far as necessary to be out of the rain. Fourth problem. Why do they agree to descend further into the mine just because their idiot lead bloke thinks it would be a hoot? One of the girls appears to be on serious anxiety medication for a start, and she's the med student, and she's first to go down! Fifth problem. How is it they are so stupid as to immediately find themselves, all of them, stuck done a vertical entrance shaft? OK, it's a teen movie, and we the suffering public have to put up with teen movie after teen movie where teens are almost always painted as idiots. Why there is no outcry against this trend I'll never know. Oddly, from here on it actually gets a lot better. The twists and turns of the mine are actually quite interesting, well lit and designed. I didn't find it claustrophobic down there. The filming is actually quite good. If you make it to the last third of the movie the story actually reaches a level of something quite profound for a teen movie. I was actually really glad I got through the cringes at the beginning. I'd even go so far as to wish the filmmakers well and assure them that The Mine was sufficiently impressive for me to look up what else they've done. Good luck to all concerned. A pretty good effort, but please spend longer when next you write your lead in.
