Sweet Angel Mine

I caught this film about 30 mins into it. I have to say it captured me right away and I couldn't stop watching. I disagree with some of the comments of people who say it had no plot, clearly they were not watching the film!!! To be honest it had a very disturbing storyline that somehow managed to draw you into the film in a rather uncomfortable way. I would go as far to say as you may have felt unpleasant whilst watching the film due to its disturbing screenplay. Whilst never feeling actually scared it seemed all too believable for me and made me feel somewhat uncomfortable and unsafe, a feeling I do not feel happy with. If the intent of this film was to disturb it did so well and this is a credit to the acting skills of all involved, who made this film seem like sick a documentary rather than a film.

I would not recommend seeing this film as it is rather disturbing and all too real, however I must commend it as a milestone in cinematography.

Bizarre, to be sure. Has a look and feel like a low budget 70's exploitation flick.

The acting is actually pretty good, and so is the the cinematography.

The "surprise" is pretty easy to predict.

It's nice to see the great British actress Anna Massey. She deserves to be in better films. Remember her in Hitchcock's "Frenzy?"

Content-wise, this is really a dark and perverse film. No kids allowed.

To my knowledge, this is the first film I've seen that is entirely filmed in Nova Scotia, Canada, or at least the first one that puts forward the region so prominently. I must say I'm deeply impressed by the beauty of this area, and that alone made "Sweet Angel Mine" worth viewing. One the other hand, one could state that, if the filming locations are the best part of a thriller, there's something seriously wrong with the film itself.

"Sweet Angel Mine" is a bizarre and semi-ambitious mix between coming-of-age, occult thriller and feminist drama. A young Londoner on a motorcycle cruises across the woods and small towns of Nova Scotia, hoping to unravel the mystery of what happened to his father, who disappeared here many years ago. The answers he seeks might be found in an isolated farmhouse run by a family of women (spooky grandma, enigmatic mother, pure daughter), but the boy is more interested in diving into the haystack with the daughter; - and maybe also the mother. The script isn't great, but nevertheless compelling enough to keep you interested. Also, whenever the story tends to get boring or overly pointless, director Curtis Radclyffe effectively inserts a bit of sex or macho bar fights. The ending is foreseeable, at least if you are into this sort of cinema, but it's pleasingly grim and mean-spirited. Decent performances, too, most notably from the gorgeous Alberta Watson ("The Keep", "The Soldier")

A young British man named Paul (Oliver Milburn) is in Canada searching for his father. He stumbles upon a farm in a remote part of Nova Scotia, where a beautiful woman and daughter are the only people for miles. Paul gets hired on to do some work around the place.

At first, it's an ideal situation, until Paul begins to suspect that there's something wrong with mum and her "angel". Circumstances arise that threaten Paul's sanity and his life.

SWEET ANGEL MINE is a subtle thriller / chiller, right up until the all-hell-breaks-loose finale. It contains some rather gruesome images and sequences. There's romance mixed with disturbing psychosexual occurrences. It gets high marks for originality and a bizarre story line...

I managed (unlike several others) to catch the film from about 5 minutes in. The film summary caught my interest but I felt the first 10 minutes went slowly as the young man rode his motorbike around Nowhere, Nova Scotia.

Once he had met up with the odd family, things began to get interesting.

Some of the scenes were very well set up especially his encounter with Rauchine in the barn where she seemed 'disinterested' in his attentions.

Disturbing in parts, and Rauchine's innocence made me feel a bit squeamish at times. The Grandmother was a bit tedious, immediately evoking the image of Norman's mother in Psycho.

Top marks to Alberta Watson who, as the mother, exhibited menace and allure at the same time. What a tiger!

Only gripe? The scene in the local bar was clumsy and didn't help the story at all. Thankfully it only lasted a few minutes.

What a pity it was shown so late on TV. Definitely a film you either love or loathe. I loved it. If you like this kind of film you should also try to see "Tick Tock".