Curse of the Forty-Niner

During the 80s, U.S. horror industry had a boom of the slasher genre after the success of "Halloween" in '78 and "Friday the 13th" in 1980. The decade saw not only their numerous sequels, but also the countless imitations and further explorations in the sub-genre. While most of those films were of average quality, it still can be considered one of the most active periods of American horror cinema. "Curse of the Forty-Niner" is a late addition to the genre, as even when it was made right after 90s revival of the genre, it has many of the elements of the 80s old school slashers.

The movie starts with a young man named Jared (Shadrach Smith) who discovers the treasure of a dead miner in a remote town in California. He calls his sister Claire (Carrie Bradac) and the rest of his friends to share the gold, but when the gang arrives Jared has disappeared. Soon they'll discover that the dead miner, Jeremiah Stone (Vernon Wells) has risen from the grave to protect his treasure and they will face his rage.

Veteran make-up artist John Carl Buechler directs the movie combining the typical elements of a slasher like a group of inexperienced people, an isolated location and an apparently invincible serial killer. Familiar with the genre (he directed Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood back in 1988), he follows the slasher formula to the letter so we get our fair share of inventive killings, gore, partial nudity and comedy; everything with a distinct 80s feeling that strangely works fine with the 90s style of film-making. It is like a perfect mix between both kinds of slashers.

However, it also carries the flaws of both styles, delivering a weak storyline with stereotyped characters that serve to no purpose other than to be killed by the monster. With a cast that seems to had been chosen based on looks only, the film goes downhill and quickly becomes another clichéd repetition of the plot that has been done many times previously; which is a shame because Buechler has done better and the original premise of the film was perfect for a modern supernatural slasher. In the end the overall product feels as if Buechler was trying to copy what makes modern slashers successful but instead he get all the flaws those film can have.

The acting skills of the young cast ranges from average to bad, as the some of the actors are void of any charm or ability to make the two-dimensional characters likable. Exceptions to this are the veterans appearing in small supporting roles such as Kaen Black, Richard Lynch and John Phillip Law. Stephen Wastell and Alexandra Ford are the only members of the young cast who actually give a great performance and Wastell is superb as the comic relief of the film. These two young actors are the only ones actually giving decent performances and actually make you care for their respective characters, basically stealing the movie to the actual lead characters played by the wooden couple of Sean Hines and Carrie Bradac.

All these flaws seem to leave the film without any redeeming quality, but still, the film has several good things that are worth to point out, like the overall look of the film, which is of a good quality although the poor CGI effects look bad when contrasted with the good make-up the miner has. John Carl Buechler manages to keep the film interesting and while definitely not a good director, he gets the job done.

"Curse of the Forty-Niner" is a mixed bag as it has enough flaws to make one forget about its good stuff, leaving it as another mediocre film in Buechler's uneven career. Hopefully Stephen Wastell and Alexandra Ford will get better roles as they show a lot of potential as actors. While maybe not a good movie, fans of 80s slashers may find something worth of their time in this flick. 5/10

My mate and I chose to watch this obvious piece of junk purely based on its tagline… After nearly 30 years of lousy and rudimentary teen slashers, I can't believe that only just now some nerdy horror brainiac come up with the brilliantly witty slogan "They Axed for it"! Other than that, "Miner's Massacre" is just as random, annoying and forgettable as all the rest out there…. Perhaps even more! The script contains all the typical clichés and features all the dreadfully stereotypic characters you wish a horrible and painful death to. The gore effects are computer engineered and thus beyond pitiable and the obligatory "big" stars (Karen Black, John Philip Law and Richard Lynch) are entirely wasted in spite of their top billing. Cursed mines and abandoned ghost towns form an ideal horror setting – the creators of "My Bloody Valentine" already figured that out in the early 80's – but his dull film simply hasn't got any innovative ideas or even remotely surprising elements to offer. Bunch of greedy twenty-something losers, which refer to themselves as friends even though they clearly can't stand each other, desecrate an ancient mine in search of the gold that is allegedly hidden there. Of course they unwarily resurrect the zombie miner this way and he just 150 years of rest in order to prepare for a massive teen massacre. Yay! The cast is exceptionally irritating in this one. The girls all have impressive racks but refuse to show anything. Instead, they all prefer endless whining and the taking of needless risks. The dim-witted blokes clearly just serve as screen fillers. In her barely five minutes of playtime, Karen Black still manages to make an utter fool out of herself by depicting the most prototypic and hysterical local nut woman ever. The zombie has a stupid and very unconvincing face, but he looks okay and reasonably menacing when shown in the distant shadow of the moonlight whilst swinging around his pick-axe. Since the best thing about "Miner's Massacre" concerns the aforementioned tagline and you can read that on the box in the video store itself, there's very little else to recommend here. Director John Carl Buechler scored a few modest hits during the eighties, like notably the original "Troll" and a fair "Friday the 13th" sequel, but it's obviously time to retire now.

The monster will look very familiar to you. So will the rest of the film, if you've seen a half-dozen of these teenagers-trapped-in-the-woods movies. Okay, so they're not teenagers, this time, but they may as well be. Three couples decide it might be a good idea to check out a nearly-abandoned ghost town, in hopes of finding the gold that people were killed over a scant century-and-a-half before. You'd think that with a title like "Miner's Massacre" some interesting things might happen. They don't. In fact, only about 1/10 of the film actually takes place in the mine. I had envisioned teams of terrified miners scampering for their lives in the cavernous confines of their workplace, praying that Black Lung Disease would get them before The Grim Reaper exacted his grisly revenge, but instead I got terrestrial twenty-somethings fornicating--and, in one case, defecating--in the woods, a gang of morons with a collective I.Q. that would have difficulty pulling a plastic ring out of a box of Cracker Jacks, much less a buried treasure from an abandoned mine. No suspense, no scares, and plenty of embarrassing performances give this turkey a 3 for nudity.

Certainly expected more after seeing the cast list, but WOW!

I think a first time director could have done a better job with this project, and the fact that a veteran like John Buechler made it, puzzles me to no end. Somehow, the budget allowed them to secure a bevy of D-List actors, whom they succeeded in embarrassing for an hour and a half. The unknown actors were just plain awful, less Steve Wastell who does a decent job as Axl. The story is so bad, that it really needs no mention. The overall production value seems standard, with some above average camera work, if you can make it through the God-Awful "slo-mo" scenes and the painful "person on fire" sequences. I knew it would be dumb, I just had no idea how dumb, and unfortunately it's time spent that can never be returned to me. I suppose if you enjoy really bad "B" films, this might work for you, but if you value any story at all, this one is simply dreadful... A complete waste of time.

Well, this 2002 movie titled "Curse of the Forty-Niner" (aka "Miner's Massacre") is a movie that I hadn't even heard about before now in 2021, 19 years after it was made, as I happened to stumble upon it by sheer random luck. And yeah, of course I sat down to watch it, as it is a horror movie that I hadn't already seen. Sure, I wasn't harboring much of any expectations for the movie, so writer Antonio Olivas and director John Carl Buechler had every chance to impress and entertain me.

And while "Curse of the Forty-Niner" was a watchable movie, it was hardly an outstanding foray into the horror genre. Writer Antonio Olivas seemed to build his storyline and plot around things that have been done countless of times before this movie, so he was sort of playing it safe I suppose. A gamble perhaps, but one that ultimately dragged the movie into mediocrity.

I had no idea that it was actually Vernon Wells that was playing the part of Jeremiah Stone, the undead miner. But then again, of course he was covered completely by prosthetic make-up.

The acting in the movie was adequate, but it was actually nice enough that they had managed to get the likes of Richard Lynch and Karen Black to show up in the movie.

For a horror movie then "Curse of the Forty-Niner" just didn't cut it. There was nothing scary about this movie whatsoever. I kid you not. This movie wasn't even remotely scary. Sure, if you are a complete newcomer to the horror genre, then perhaps you'll find an ounce of scary stuff here. But for a life-long horror veteran, this was a mere walk in the park.

The special effects in "Curse of the Forty-Niner" were adequate and served their purposes well enough. However, do keep in mind though, that the special effects will not knock you over from your seat. This was not a grand spectacle of special effects.

All in all, "Curse of the Forty-Niner" was watchable, but it was not an outstanding or memorable movie to grace the horror genre. It is the type of movie that you will watch once, and then forget about it and never return to watch it a second time.

My rating of "Curse of the Forty-Niner" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars.