A group of young friends travel to a deserted cabin in the woods only to make a gruesome discovery – their own bodies, brutally murdered. If that’s got you hooked, I might as well tell you now – the premise is utterly wasted on this film.

Richard Gray’s Mine Games is poorly-written, badly-acted, riddled with clichés and entirely unsatisfying. The first third of the movie reads like a parody of the standard horror genre set-up, except no one’s laughing. Count how many times characters ask the schizophrenic if he remembered to take his meds – this is exposition at its most heavy-handed.

The blandly-forgettable cast routinely make incomprehensible choices to move the plot along to its next unconvincing point. This has the unfortunate effect of shattering the rare moments of genuine tension in the film. A tip for horror writers: if the audience laughs every time somebody opens their mouth, you’ve done something wrong. Keep an eye out for Rebecca Da Costa in her role as Generic Medium with an Accent, a wholly-unnecessary character who manages to be the most boring of an entirely two-dimensional cast.

Almost entirely – Joseph Cross portrays the unstable Michael with an eerie solemnity that almost excuses his character arc’s lack of payoff.

Mine Games’ shortage of creativity and intellect is disappointing considering its premise – once that was gone, it was just a matter of filling in the blanks.

First published online for Farrago Magazine