Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Monique One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

lathe-of-heaven I was kind of reluctant to write a review for this film. Mainly, because SOME people may indeed find it entertaining (as some here have said) But, to me personally, although I REALLY liked the premise and even, in CONCEPT, liked the basic way the story was plotted and what the underlying 'truth' eventually turned out to be, it was the way the story was handled and primarily the 'STYLE' in which it was done I felt were just not nearly as effective or satisfying as it could have been, given the excellent subject matter.I feel that if the film makers had approached the movie with more of a 'SESSION 9' type of film in mind, rather than an 'MTV' type of style, THEN I probably would have really liked it a LOT better. It started out really well with a ponderous, moody tone (very much like 'SESSION 9', one of my all time favourite Horror films) BUT... about half way into the story as they began to 'ratchet up the tension', the movie kind of lost me mainly because of it's visual and editorial style. I don't mean to say that there were a lot of mindless quick edits, or anything quite THAT awful or stupid, but still, the overall approach really leaned a lot more towards quicker edits, strobed visuals, and intercut scares. SOMETIMES that can work with a Horror film, but in my lowly and wretched opinion, NOT with this kind of premise where you clearly have the potentially Dark, Mysterious, and Biblically Supernatural possibilities that this story has. I feel that with a movie of THIS type, constructing a strong mood is far, ***FAR*** more important than flashy visuals.That is why, in my thinking, the premise and the setting to me were MUCH more strongly reminiscent of 'SESSION 9' with it's abandoned research station instead of an abandoned asylum, and the people there clearly being affected mentally (or spiritually) also as in 'SESSION 9' So, to me their visual and tonal approach with this film just didn't quite seem to be as Darkly effective as it could have been. Don't get me wrong, there WERE several nice, creepy individual scenes. The recorded sounds were quite effective. But, instead of ramping up the visuals to such a frenzied and kinetic degree, to me it seems that a more Dark and ponderous approach would have worked a LOT better. In other words, instead of what I perceived as a more superficial and kind of obvious visual approach, I think a more Dark, vague, and almost subconsciously disturbing mood would have fit this story much better.So, FWIW, I just wanted to leave my impressions of the movie here for others who may want a little insight into the approach and tone of the film, since Horror movies can be approached in a MILLION different ways and styles, and people's tastes are just as varied too.The acting and overall technical competence was good. I would say that even the writing and the direction that the story took and the eventual underlying 'truth' and outcome were just fine. I just think that the actual STYLE of the movie, if it had been approached differently, could have REALLY had a MUCH more powerful impact on the audience, and could have been far more disturbing and unsettling (thus fitting the premise better) and a LOT more effective in creating a sense of true 'Horror' for the audience.

MaximumMadness I both was and was not surprised to learn that this film was once scheduled to be helmed by John Carpenter in the 1990's, before he dropped out. While I didn't expect to hear that news, it made a lot of sense, since this seems like the sort of film that Carpenter could really sink his teeth into, and I'm actually quite sad that we never saw his version of the film.Regardless, Anthony Walker stepped in to fill Carpenter's empty director's chair, with a cast including Adrian Paul of "Highlander: The Series" fame, and Kate Nauta, known for roles in films like "Transporter 2" and "The Game Plan." And despite this being a very obvious and often-times heavily flawed B-movie, it's actually fairly well made for the most part. Though unfortunately its flaws are too great for it to elevate itself to anything beyond "average."Based loosely on the infamous "Well to Hell" hoax (a sort-of social experiment/prank in which heavily modified audio from 70's horror film "Baron Blood" was circulated with the claim that it was audio from deep underground of people being tortured in Hell), the story focuses on tormented Security Expert Thomas "Jack" Jackman (Paul), who is sent out to investigate a remote drilling facility in the Sahara. He discovers that the team working at the facility on a deep-drilling experiment have suffered many casualties, with only one member remaining- JC, portrayed by Nauta. After a series of grisly discoveries, including wording written in blood and a bizarre audio clip from deep underground that sounds eerily similar to the wailing of people being tortured, "Jack" begins to question his sanity, and whether or not the situation has a logical explanation... or if the situation is being controlled by the forces of Hell itself.The acting unfortunately is fairly underwhelming. As much as I liked Adrian Paul in his "Highlander" glory days, he's unfortunately just not a particularly skilled actor. But I will give him credit, because he is at very least clearly trying to give a good, compelling performance. And he is quite charming in the role. The same could be said for Nauta, who similarly is just not very good here, but is giving it a very decent shot. Bit parts by the likes of Amanda Douge and even director Anthony Walker are decently played, however.Walker's direction is the standout part of the film. While I have hated some of his earlier works ("An American Werewolf in Paris" being particularly noteworthy of being poor-quality), here, he gives us a very stylish, slick visual representation of the story, and I liked a lot of the touches and ideas he brought to the film. Although I will question some of his choices, including a bizarre and unintentionally funny detail during the opening sequence, in which "Jack" investigates the drilling facility, and every single one of the hanging lights is "wobbling" for creepiness-effect. It just seems forced and silly that every single light in every single shot is wobbling.The script by Walker and Everett De Roche is unfortunately the undoing of the film, and is the main factor in bringing it down a few points. Because, frankly, despite having a lot of cool ideas, it's very confused, contrived and convoluted. And it is so over-stuffed with double-crosses, tonal shifts, twists and turns to maintain a sense of ambiguity, that I ended up finding myself losing interest, since it was trying too darned hard and giving me a headache trying to follow the story in any capacity. I understand that Walker and De Roche want the film to be dripping with mystery, intrigue and have an ambiguous tone where the audience has to decide what is happening... but it's just so forced here. It feels very amateurish in how the story was constructed. Ambiguity can be accomplished with tact, class and deliberation in good films, but here, it's accomplished through poor writing and needless amounts of twists. And without spoiling anything, the final 20 minutes are a cluster of constant twists and shifts that are so overwhelming and needlessly confusing, it almost ruined the entire film for me. I also will admit that I found a recurring motif of suicide (as "Jack" lost his family when his wife killed herself and their children in a murder-suicide) to be very uncomfortable, off-putting and somewhat too exploitive for the film. (Though this could just be my gut reaction as someone who is dealing with the recent suicide of a friend.)And unfortunately, that script drags down what would have been an otherwise pretty good, decent film down to the score I am giving it- a very average and sadly underwhelming 5 out of 10. I would still say that horror fans should give it a shot, because the direction is very good, and there are things to like about it, but the sloppy script holds it back from achieving its full potential.

Claudio Carvalho The GNE security agent Thomas 'Jack' Jackman (Adrian Paul) travels to the Jebel Afra drilling station in a remote area of the Sahara desert to seek out twenty-five scientists from the research team of Professor Borman (Anthony Waller) that are missing and without any contact with the base. Jack finds the station deserted and weird marks painted with blood on the wall. On the next morning, Jack meets the gorgeous and sexy Dr. Jennie J.C. Christianson (Kate Nauta) alone in the base and she explains that the research team had drilled very deep and released something. After that, they have been affected and started killing each other and shows the bodies of Professor Borman and another scientist in the refrigerating chamber. J.C. wants to leave the place a.s.a.p. but Jack contacts the operator Kat (Amanda Douge) and she tells him that they should wait for the police. Further, they had met a Russian scientist wandering with sample of gas. Jack, who misses his wife that had committed suicide and killed their two children, continues to investigate the station and find videotapes from Dr. Borman advising that his team had released evil from the depths of hell. Jack has visions and daydreams and believes that J.C. is actually a succubus that wants to seduce him to leave the location. What is the mystery in that remote station? "Nine Miles Down" is a surprisingly good low budget horror movie, basically in one location and great performances of Adrian Paul and the extremely gorgeous and sexy Kate Nauta. The plot is engaging and well- developed keeping the mystery until the very last scene. In the end, hell is in our minds indeed. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Nove Milhas para o Inferno" ("Nine Miles to Hell")

kanenasanonas When you see a 5.5 rating usually you expect near-trash stuff. Well it turned out to be so much better than expected. The strongest thing about this film is, you get what you expect from a thriller (suspense, twists, gore etc), but in a believable way. You don't get bored and constantly you have to question whether reality or insanity is driving the characters of the film. Adrian Paul is above average, Kate Nauta is fine but surely cannot pass as a... scientist. If it was shot with bigger star power, it would get the rate it deserves, but still a 7/10 is fine, considering the budget. Now the 100 people that rated it with 1 or 2, where surely expecting something else. My recommendation: see it