The Haunting of Hell Hole Mine – Review
107 Minutes, Not Rated
Written by Robbie Trujillo and Paul Collett
Directed by Tammy Massa and Paul Collett
**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review below, as well as reviews for all the other movies he’s done here on the website. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
Inside a long-abandoned gold mine, lurks the Shakani, a dark supernatural being conjured by the Shanowah tribe ages ago to defeat their enemies. Not only ferocious and fast, but can appear as anyone and get inside your mind. Luke’s ancestors trapped it in the mine but each has also gone crazy. Now Luke’s niece Poni, has come down with “the family curse.” But Luke believes with the proper medical treatment she can be healed if only he can get the money to pay for it. So with a couple friends he tries his luck at the gold mine but gradually realizes he must defeat the Shakani and end the family curse.
What a waste of Tom Sizemore (in one of his last roles) and Tommy Lister, Jr.
A man inherits a gold mine from an estranged uncle….
Look, there’s a lot going on here, and perhaps there’s a good movie in here somewhere, so let’s tick off what we’re working with:
3 brothers in the 1800s working the mine, and bad things happen, resulting in a portion of the mine being sealed off.
Some Native American characters have to learn more about their heritage in order to survive.
A weird “attraction triangle” between our lead (Luke), Tom Sizemore’s Roscoe, and Tom’s girlfriend, Dawn.
I like the parts that director Paul Collett has brought together, and I know there’s a good story in here, but the mythology of the events that predated the brothers in the mine is never really established, the male lead is played by the director, who frankly isn’t that good an actor, and the female lead is woefully undercooked, when she had the makings of a really interesting character instead of just a placeholder/target for the men’s affections. She is easily the most interesting character of the three, perhaps with the most relatability to the mythology of the mine, but we never go there.
Which is a shame.
The backstory we eventually get about the three brothers is lackluster at best (the aforementioned waste of Tommy Lister, Jr.), though the subplot about the lead’s niece, Poni (who spends the majority of the movie in a mental institution and target of the supernatural force), had the makings of something good, but here it exists mostly to remind us of what her uncle is ostensibly trying to glean from working the mine in the first place.
Again, there’s a few good bits and some potential here, but it never comes together in a way that is at all compelling, or even interesting.
The Haunting of Hell Hole Mine is currently available on most digital platforms and stars Tom Sizemore, Paul Collett, May Myat Noe, Tori Lane Ross, Caroline Dingwall, Rudy Youngblood, Revell Carpenter, Tommy Lister Jr., and Sally Kirkland.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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