Mine Games (2012); A Review.

Australian director Richard Gray’s (‘Summer Coda’, 2010) latest film ‘Mine Games’ (2012) is an inventive psychological thriller ahead of its time with philosophical undertones akin to the deep esoteric style of Lynch and Hitchcock.

Produced by US production company Vitamin A Films, ‘Mine Games’ starts out innocently enough with nothing we haven’t seen before- six college students hit the road and drive to the woods for a weekend cabin adventure. The film stars: Briana Evigan (‘Lyla’), Julianna Guill (‘Claire’), Joseph Cross (‘Michael’), Rafi Gavron (‘Lex’), Ethan Peck (‘Guy’), Alex Meraz (‘TJ’) and Rebecca Da Costa (‘Rose’). They are the cliché archetypal American college students featured in most horror films- hot, horny, drunk, loud, spoiled. All seems super fly ‘American Pie’ until they find themselves in the depth of the woods and things take a turn towards the dark side.

While driving, Michael narrowly misses a person on the road, crashing off road to avoid him. They dont stop to see if the stranded person needs help, and from here events begin to spiral. They each try to put the unfortunate event behind them to focus on the good times ahead, however, after the accident and increasing depths into the woods, they have now entered a point of no return where these young students get more than they bargained for on their getaway; they find themselves in a place beyond the limits of time and space, a kind of blip in the universe inside and out of existence.

They finally find the cabin and initiate it with a party and lots of alcohol, but there is an undeniable sinister feeling emitting from the dark forest outside, surrounding them, engulfing them. Meanwhile as they all have been drinking, Michael (the driver of the car) has turned fey and a dark shadow has descended upon him. He takes himself away from the festivities.

The next day, TJ (Alex Meraz) discovers thar the cabin is a actually in close proximity to a huge mine that descends deep unground. There are signs blocking entry to the mine, but being young and curious the gang decide to go exploring into the depths; herein is where the ‘games’ begin. Outside, a sign has been written on the bleak, mossy walls: ‘break the cycle’. Inside our friends discover the snake image of the Uroborus.

The Uroborus here is the underlying motif of ‘Mine Games’, which is of course the age-old archetype of the snake eating itself, an ancient mythological mandala symbol representing the primal cycle of human existence and life on earth: life as an endless series of regeneration from life to death and rebirth, of positive and negative aspects, of life feeding on life.

Their entry into the mines begins a horror story of epic proportions where nothing is what it seems, where death begins to look like life and vice-versa, where everything and everyone becomes a chaotic indistinguishable veil between truth and illusion, reality and dream, death and regeneration.

The movie itself has some traditional horror story elements reminiscent of ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ (1997) but with the artistic depth of ‘Psycho’ and ‘Twin Peaks’ and, if looked at close enough, not only demonstrates a microcosmic level of what is actually happening to each character in terms of who is alive and dead etc., but also poses the question of a macro-cosmic metaphysical level of the larger picture of life itself: what does the ‘cycle’ of life and the Uruboro symbol truly mean? And in regards to humanity and existence, are we indeed slaves to this cycle or can we as individuals attempt to break it?

Being a psychological thriller, ‘Mine Games’ explores the many facets of an individual’s persona and what happens when one is confronted with the varying faces of oneself. Michael is the one to take this journey during which we are presented with many Michaels- Michael the lover, Michael the carefree college student, Michael the serious introspective young man, Michael the murderer… It goes on. At the end of the film he is faced with his multiple personas and we are left to wonder if he can come to terms with them all or if he will get lost in the endless chaos and continue on a cyclical murdering rampage.

With the suggestions of one having many present and very real personalities at the same time, we also enter the frame of the mystery of the psyche and, I dare to say, the argument of quantum-physics and the question of whether or not we are this one being or a manifestation of many selves in many different places at once. And once we find out the answers to such ontological questions, if we ever will, would it then be possible to ‘break the cycle’?

‘Mine Games’ is a relevant psychological thriller that will not only entertain and excite to a nail-biting edge-of-the-seat suspense, but ignite discussion and debate. What more could you want from a commercial art film?

-written by Vanessa McMahon 

film photo stills:

1) Ethan Peck ('Guy') in 'Mine Games' (2012) 

2) Joseph Cross ('Michael') in 'Mine Games'.

3) Julianna Guill ('Claire') in 'Mine Games'.