The Haunting of Hell Hole Mine

After her behavior starts changing, a woman's cousin decides to get money to help her by looking into the haunted gold mine he has inherited and visits it with some friends, but when they too start acting crazy realize it's all connected to a Native American curse that got released and must try to stop it.

This was a pretty decent and enjoyable supernatural genre effort. Among the better elements here are the initial exploits of the curse and how it's integrated into their family which is handled quite nicely. The initial start in the old West adapting the encounter in the mine and how it starts there serves to start it rather well with the modern-day scenes showing that they've obviously come under a strain of bad luck including their lack of corporate success and series of personal tragedies. Once it starts becomes far more obvious with the attempted suicides, interactions with hallucinations, or dreams involving the Native Indian spirits attacking and killing them in sacred ceremonies it all comes off rather nice how everything starts off here. Once this goes into the scenes at the mine and their attempts at making something of the treasure there this becomes somewhat more effective with the film turning into a far more overt series of exploits about the curse. At the cursed campsite and unaware of what's going on, the series of hallucinations about themselves or one of the doomed miners that started it appearing before them to taunt and torment them psychologically or hearing eerie whispers in the distance bring about a solid sense of fun here with the idea of them not knowing who to trust or what's going on makes for a nice time. These scenes are all good to build up to a fine finale that offers a rather fun means of tying everything together which makes this a fun enough genre effort. There are some big issues here holding it down. The main factor with the film is that there's not much in the way of genuine action here beyond the unexpected character appearing behind someone which seems to be the main reason to consider this a genre feature. While it's still overtly macabre and generally still focused on this tone, the type of action here is so laid back and lethargic that there's a generally sluggish pace and tempo on display that tends to keep it underwhelming for long stretches of time. Wasting a lot of time on the group seemingly scared but not finding enough reasons to leave and conversing about potential tactics to carry out is just as bad here and furthers the running time for this one longer than it needs to be which are the big issues here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

It's actually hard to believe this is as bad as it is. The first distraction is the cheesy props and sets. For example it literally looks like the mine shaft is one of the backdoor passages in Splash Mountain.. incredibly fake, so right away it was off-putting. Then comes in the boring and drawn out script, elementary acting, clunky plot points and poor sound design. When the actors touch the mine shaft wall it sounds like styrofoam or hollow plastic. The final nail in this coffin was that the movie has zero tension or scares, and no graphic anything. I can't recommend this as there is just nothing to promote here.

I only watched it because it was one of the dozen -- yes DOZEN movies Tome Sizemore made in 2023 before his death. In most of them he looks like crap. He actually doesnt look too bad in this one. And his acting is pretty OK. I was also interested t see Sally Kirkland -- who was hot 30 years ago. And Lister who died after this film. The embarrassment of being in this total clunker might have killed him.

There is zero budget. Sizemore -- or is it the Sizemore lookalike -- walks around the mine (which looks like someone's basement) with a dollar light on his head. And that's the weird part. They cast another guy who looks just like Sizemore. Why?

Anyway, the plot is non-existent. It's just horrible. And the director has no clue how to direct a movie and keep it tight. The acting is absurdly bad.

You will be bored out of your mind.

I have written many reviews on IMDB, and think I have only given 1 star once, or possibly twice before. And I don't think I have ever given up on movie so early.

But I honestly cannot think of one redeeming quality to save this. The acting is painful and cringe worthy from the first second to the last, and from every cast member without exception. I actually felt awkward watching it was so bad.

The dialogue does nothing to help, it is so stilted and unnatural. After the first 20 minutes, I watched the rest at double speed, just in case things improved, slowing down every now and then just to check it was still awful. It was.

Needless to say that I had never heard about this 2023 mystery thriller titled "The Haunting of Hell Hole Mine" prior to stumbling upon it by random chance here in 2023. The movie's title and the fact that it was starring Tom Sizemore wasn't exactly enticing, to say the least. But, with it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to give the movie the benefit of the doubt and give it a fair chance.

Writers Paul Collett and Robbie Trujillo put together a very, very sluggish and mundane script. I made it 30 minutes into the ordeal, and then I gave up. I kid you not, by the 30 minute marker, nothing had happened and it felt like I had been watching more than an hour worth of nothing. Yeah, the narrative was that slow paced. And, suffice it to say, that I am not returning to watch the rest of the movie, as there simply was nothing entertaining about the 30 minutes I literally suffered through.

The acting performances in the movie were matching the narrative; sluggish and mundane. So you're not in for anything grand. But then again, it wasn't a stellar cast that participated in the movie. I was familiar only with Tom Sizemore and Tom Lister Jr.

The special effects in the movie were dubious and questionable at best.

"The Haunting of Hell Hole Mine", from directors Paul Collett and Tammy Massa, was a massive swing and a miss. And if you enjoy horror movies, do yourself a favor and stay well clear of this dumpster fire.

My rating of "The Haunting of Hell Hole Mine" lands on a one out of ten stars.