The Story
A group of miners get trapped in a mine after an explosion. One miner goes nuts and kills all of his co-workers in order to ration his oxygen supply. He then kills a bunch of people for reasons that are never explained, and gets done in by some coppers. Ten years later more people are dying at the hands of the miner. Is he back from the dead or is a copycat on the loose?
The story was the real weak part of this movie. It was extremely convoluted, and near the end of the film I was asking myself many a question that were answered (sort of) during the opening cinematic of the film where the newspapers are shown. More attention and focus should have been placed on developing the important plot points, but they were ignored.
Characters
I liked the characters in this film for the most part. Kerr Smith played the town sheriff well, I hated him at the beginning but found myself liking him more during the end of the film. Being able to move from bad guy to a good guy portrayal is pretty tough, and I think he pulled it off. Jensen Ackles was, Jensen Ackles. I find him to be exactly the same in everything he does, not a real superb actor in my opinion. Tom Atkins was Tom Atkins. Has this guy ever played anything other than a cop?! You would be hard pressed to find that film. Loved him in Night of the Creeps, in this he was just another cop.
Gore/Special Effects
This movie wallowed in the gore! Tons of inventive and graphic kills were on display here! Having the SFX done by none other than Gary Tunnicliffe, is a sure fire way to have impressive high level quality gore in your film. The dude designed the Lament Configuration!
Lasting Appeal
The real main draw of this film is the kills/gore/effects. It’s the reason why I would recommend it, and will watch it many times again in the future. The action starts fast and doesn’t let up. There are constant kills throughout the movie. Blood and eyeballs fly at the screen, like a Friday the 13th flick it’s mindless fun!
Final Head Count
I cannot compare this film to the original, because I haven’t seen it (yet). I never had any desire previously to watch a serial killer go around in a mining suit killing on Valentine’s Day. After seeing this re-make and how good it was, I’m going to give the original a chance. The characters were pretty good, the special effects were great and the story was passable at points and extremely shitty at others. Overall, it was a fun movie and exceeded my remake expectations.
Note: This film was NOT watched in 3D. I watched the DVD version and the 3D looked terrible, so I opted to go with the regular version instead.
