In 1857, child murderer Andries Martiens(..who was a practitioner of black magic using the heads as a means for traveling to hell and back so that he could retrieve information from his evil parents on where his inheritance was)was sent into a mine as a fireman to explode methane. His demise(..the myth of his death from the duty of the fireman may or not be the truth;if you survive the explosion of methane, wearing a suit which protects you from flame, then you are set free)brings notoriety to the mine in present day where a guide, once a worker, takes visitors on an excursion 200 feet underground on a tour, explaining the duties and dangers of this line of work. Five Dutch teens + a counselor and two of his troubled youths take the tour into the mine. Kris(Victorio Koblenko)was having an argument with her father over her future when a truck crashes into their car, ending in an explosion which kills him right before her eyes. The mine tour, where Martiens legend lives and breathes giving the guide a spook story to tell, is in the vicinity of where Kris needed to retrieve a manuscript her father was working on regarding the notorious killer..this is where she finds a Ouija board, the manuscript, and a music box of Martiens(..which may have something to it Martiens would've been interested in getting back). On an audio tape, played through a cassette player where her father was putting together a background of Martiens, we learn of why the killer needed 8 heads, and was willing to kill peasant children in order to do this. When the grounds keeper locks the gate leaving the tour forgetting about the last group of the day, they find that the lift which brought them underground isn't operational. Finding an access elsewhere to pursue help, the guide informs the group to stay put. Gathering around the Ouija board, the group summon Martiens evil spirit with all hell breaking loose as he can move from human host to human host seeking 8 heads so that he can exit hell. Once a devastating avalanche collapses the guide's exit, he's attacked by Susan, one of Mark's(the counselor)kids leaving the group to not only fend for themselves, but stuck with having to find another way out. Maybe, Kris can summon her father's spirit the same as Martiens for answers..
Dutch supernatural slasher with those possessed by the killer's spirit resembling those victims from "Night of the Demons"..pale skin, discolored eyes, and snarling shark-like teeth. The setting is just perfect for a slasher, though..inside an abandoned, labyrinthine coal mine, with the lights flickering, where, as the tour guide said while showing the gang around, that if you get lost, you get dead. When violence erupts and the possessed person attacks, the directors'(Frank van Geloven & Edwin Visser)camera is frenzied, shaking all over the place, I guess trying to capture the frenetic nature such situations might produce. The cataleptic state of their camera during these attack scenes as our victims run for their lives(..or try to defend themselves)might alienate many viewers. The cast of characters might be Dutch, but that's where it ends..this kind of cast could star in any Friday the 13th movie, and we'd not know the difference except that they speak their native language. Kris is given development because, as you know slasher fans following this genre for ages, she's the "final girl" who is appropriately established, as is the counselor(..cleverly saved from death numerous times). The film goes out of it's way to keep those two alive at the end while others are mincemeat. One poor possessed soul gets half her head taken off by a spate which separates it from the rest of her body, flesh is ripped away from one fellow's limbs before getting his throat sliced just as he's about to hit pay-dirt from the mine, one gets her head blown apart by a shot gun blast after dying from a spear plunged through her, etc. I think slasher fans, if they can look past the bonkers premise and stupid characters, might enjoy this one. That is if they can handle the spastic camera work..
Dutch supernatural slasher with those possessed by the killer's spirit resembling those victims from "Night of the Demons"..pale skin, discolored eyes, and snarling shark-like teeth. The setting is just perfect for a slasher, though..inside an abandoned, labyrinthine coal mine, with the lights flickering, where, as the tour guide said while showing the gang around, that if you get lost, you get dead. When violence erupts and the possessed person attacks, the directors'(Frank van Geloven & Edwin Visser)camera is frenzied, shaking all over the place, I guess trying to capture the frenetic nature such situations might produce. The cataleptic state of their camera during these attack scenes as our victims run for their lives(..or try to defend themselves)might alienate many viewers. The cast of characters might be Dutch, but that's where it ends..this kind of cast could star in any Friday the 13th movie, and we'd not know the difference except that they speak their native language. Kris is given development because, as you know slasher fans following this genre for ages, she's the "final girl" who is appropriately established, as is the counselor(..cleverly saved from death numerous times). The film goes out of it's way to keep those two alive at the end while others are mincemeat. One poor possessed soul gets half her head taken off by a spate which separates it from the rest of her body, flesh is ripped away from one fellow's limbs before getting his throat sliced just as he's about to hit pay-dirt from the mine, one gets her head blown apart by a shot gun blast after dying from a spear plunged through her, etc. I think slasher fans, if they can look past the bonkers premise and stupid characters, might enjoy this one. That is if they can handle the spastic camera work..