Mine Games 2012

A group of friends is on vacation. Joseph Cross as Michael, and Briana Evigan as Lyla are a couple, while Alex Meraz as TJ and Julianna Guill as Claire form another pair. Rafi Gavron as Lex joins the trip as TJ’s cousin, after his father’s death, and Rebecca Da Costa as Rose is a confident, talented medium who rounds out the group, with Ethan Peck as Guy appearing to be unattached and simply along for the ride. The friends are headed to their hosts’ cabin, and there’s a sense of easy summer camaraderie as they plan to arrive around dinnertime, though the night will soon push them far from that expectation.

On the way they stop at a gas station for snacks, where a newspaper headline reports a murdered couple found in an RV—an ominous clue that lingers as the night deepens. While driving toward the cabin in the dark, a figure stands in the road, forcing a sudden swerve that ruptures the radiator and leaves the van sputtering a short distance away. The group trudges through the night toward the cabin, leaving the van behind, and it becomes clear that Michael has left his anti-psychotic medication in the vehicle, hinting at deeper personal struggles. A shimmering, oddly out-of-place glow—Aurora Borealis—appears in the sky, even though the group jokes that they’re far south for such a display, a moment that will resonate with the strange, dreamlike mood ahead.

They find a house with lights on and approach—TJ and Rose head to the front door, which is locked, so they circle around back. Inside, they discover a note asking TJ, Lex, and Claire to stay; it’s addressed to part of the group, and they assume it’s from Matt and Sarah and decide to settle in. TJ and Michael go outside to fix a faltering generator by refilling the gas; a loud thump outside triggers a brief scare, dismissed as a raccoon, until another burst of activity draws them back in. Michael notices a second, half-full gasoline can and returns to the task, only to find someone had run off while he wasn’t looking. He drifts to bed, while Matt and Sarah lie elsewhere in their own RV, lost in the woods and, briefly, in a moment of intimacy.

In the morning, Rose asks Michael where he wandered off to in the night. Lex uncovers a stash of mining equipment in a closet, and TJ finds the mine entrance while out for a walk. Lex and Rose decide to take mushrooms on their way toward discovery, while the group confronts the unknown ahead. The mine entrance bears a message: “Break the cycle,” scrawled beside the opening, and Rose has a nagging sense of foreboding before stepping inside. The walls reveal an Ouroboros drawing, hinting at cycles and rebirth that will haunt the group as they descend.

Inside, Lex and Rose separate from the majority of the group, arguing that the mine’s layout is a simple circle, a claim Lex insists he’s never truly understood. A rotted wooden bridge on the larger traverse forces the others to turn back, though Rose presses on with Lex toward a dead end. Meanwhile, Michael, TJ, and Guy discover a small closet with a metal door; Michael enters and finds the red words This is the first time written on the wall, a clue that feels personal and chilling. The door is slammed shut as a prank, but it jams, trapping Michael inside for a tense moment before it’s opened again.

Rose spots fresh blood on the mine floor and bolts back toward safety, and a figure she believes is someone from the mine closes in on her—a shadowy presence that leaves a bloody handprint on a door. Back at the cabin, Rose’s legs bear fresh scrapes that no one else notices. Michael returns to the van with Lyla, asking if she’d intervene if anyone tried to hurt him, and they discover the van door is open, a broken headlight glistening with blood, a sign of something violent that has occurred recently. The group remains determined to wait out the night for Matt and Sarah to return.

As the tension thickens, Lex reveals he dropped his wallet somewhere in the mine and heads back with TJ to search for it, while Lex and Rose explore the mine’s deeper zones. They come across a closet containing more old mining equipment and a metal door with a key. The two of them drink beer and push deeper; the discovery of a severed memory becomes a brutal reminder of mortality as they uncover the bodies of Lex and TJ—each’s own corpse covered under burlap. The moment shatters the group’s sense of safety, and the others hurry back to the house in shock.

Claire, Lyla, and Guy arrive at the house, while Rose screams in the mine. They confront Michael about his possible role and the eerie sense that he might know more than the rest, and soon the group locks Michael in the metal-closeted room with the key. The trio of Lex, TJ, and Claire attempt to understand what’s happening, while Rose experiences visions of their supposed fates—seeing people “not from this world” and struggling to distinguish reality from the inexplicable. The lights flicker as the rover of danger returns, and Michael’s mind grows darker, signaling the end of their fragile trust.

In a desperate move, the group tries to confine Michael within the mine twice, even as Lyla reveals that Michael had anticipated their betrayal. They lock him in the room with the key, while Rose collapses in fear and confusion. Michael escapes the moment the others turn their attention away, moving through the yard with a new confidence, gathering the dead and hiding them under burlap in the mine and returning to the house to tamper with the situation further. He drags Guy’s body into the mine and marks the walls with blood, echoing the earlier “Break the cycle” message.

Lyla and Guy decide to leave, though Guy is killed when a van speeds along the road and swerves to avoid him, striking Lyla instead. Guy’s last act is to apologize and attempt to warn Lyla, but the damage is done, and he slips away into the night.

Back in the mine, Michael compiles the corpses and hides them under burlap once more, then returns to the house to confront the others with a chilling calm. He seizes Rose’s body and hides it in the basement before dragging Claire’s fears and memories into the darkness. The other group arrives, and Michael confronts them again, warning them that they cannot trust Lex, TJ, Guy, and Claire. He locks the second time’s escape behind a door and, with the key in hand, tells the group to defend themselves or be killed. He then steps away, leaving them to confront the consequences of their actions.

As the tension peaks, Michael returns to the yard and, with a final, menacing calm, crosses into the other group’s space. He stabs Matt at the family RV and moves inside to finish off Sarah, leaving chaos in his wake. Rose wakes in the next moment to see Michael walking through the yard, and a third version of Michael—real or imagined—sits at a campfire in the woods, where he burns his anti-psychotics in a final, unsettling ritual.

The story closes with a third group at the gas station, where a bloodied Lyla staggers toward the van, suggesting the cycle may finally be broken, or perhaps merely reset for another night of terror to begin.