9 Miles Down

source: 9 Miles Down

I'm tempted to give this a higher rating than I think it deserves simply because of some of the hate I'm seeing in the reviews. No, this isn't a blockbuster and it won't win any awards but as a B-movie it works well enough. The acting and story are decent and the theme is intriguing. Namely, is Hell a real place or something we create in our own minds? My main complaint is about the nudity. I lost count of how many times the male star's butt was on-screen, sometimes for several seconds. At least there was a very brief shot of the female star's behind as some recompense but it was too little too late. In short, this isn't an action or even a real horror film and it can be confusing, but in the end I liked it. Compared to a lot of junk I've had to pay to sit through at theaters, this was worth a viewing.

It's one of those movies that had potential but somehow does not really uses it. The storyline is your typical ingredients for a good psychological thriller/horror movie that constantly has you and the viewer questioning their mind. A man is sent to a deserted drill site in the Sahara desert, where a series of unexplained deaths have taken place. As soon as he arrives, a mysterious woman appears who claims to be the survivor of the scientific team, but who is she really ? Already at the start the movie just rushes by without letting the atmosphere really do its' work. And as soon as the storyline really gets off, the film deteriorates into one big confusing mess. It just uses the same old "hallucinations within an hallucination within an hallucinations etc." formula over and over again ad tedium. The female character barely adds anything to the storyline, she's just eye candy and the ending still doesn't explain anything about her. Shame, because the movie did have some potential. Oh well, still better than Rob Zombie I guess.

I torturously watched this movie all the way to the end just to figure out what it was supposed to be about. Other than an opportunity for the hot chick to display her goods the movie was so obscure and muddled in tidbits of reality and hallucination that it lost all interest or belief. It must've been on a very low budget with only a few main characters and what appears to be a deserted drilling operation. It was probably a test drilling for water and then abandoned. So the location was cheap the facilities were cheap and special effects were cheap. And they only had a few actors. Otherwise a good springboard for the attractive blonde.

This doesn't even live up to the promise of the picture on the DVD cover. There's nothing about "9 miles down", except some fumes coming out of the drill hole. There's practically nothing about Hell. There isn't even a drilling rig crew. Conveniently, they went missing in the desert, thus saving the cost of hiring actors. We mainly see only the same man and woman throughout most of the movie. We also see the desert. The man requested backup, and I was desperately hoping someone else would come to add a little variety. Unfortunately, nobody else came until the end of the movie. This is a "psychological thriller," only because both the man and woman are completely irrational. There's so little to this movie that I have no idea what they spent the millions of dollars on.

Wow what a piece of garbage. I guess this was suppose to be a scary psychological type thriller. It missed by a mile. The female lead is a good looking, computer altered at times character. She is obviously a desert spirit of a past time, that is of course evil. The site where all the action takes place is a science site looking for I am not sure what. Every one is dead except for the spirit when the investigator shows up to guess what(?) investigate of all things. There are all kinds of dream sequences and nightmares that the investigator goes through but in the end who cares? This movie was as poorly done as any SyFy original movie that I have seen.

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")

Having seen the trailer to make sure it was OK, i thought the movie looked quite good delivering a story that contained a little horror, drama and mystery all rolled in to one. There is nothing bad about the acting or the idea behind the story. It was just that the plot was weak and confusing at times (for me at least). If you are looking for something that will scare you then, you will be disappointed, it may have you wondering at times like the previous comment mentioned as to whether "hell is real, or a state of mind." but that is about all. The characters are just planted in the middle of no where with no introduction as to who they are or what they doing in the sahara. The howling wind and the sand beating against the facility windows and doors in the first 5 minutes, is probably the most frightening thing about the movie but the rest is just average looking for cheap thrills with peeks at partial nudity at times and the old scary hag routine. There are however elements of good effects giving you a glimpse as to what could have been if it had been thought about more but instead you are left feeling a bit disappointed knowing there was so much more scope to the storyline and the female character at the end.

Good movie. I strongly recommend it. Great acting, original plot, as well as a strong message. It is nothing like avatar or dear john where you can easily predict what is going to happen. At the same time it is pretty realistic and deals with a subject that is becoming of increasing importance in our society today: how to rationally deal with unexplained or apparently unnatural phenomena. The struggle between rationality of science and the irrational instinct of humans. I was captured by the movie for its entire duration. The end is very convincing to me, however the movie did not end after the last scene, if you know what i mean :)

There's nothing good to say about this movie. Its over-long, the acting's bad, the special effects are crappy, the plot is weak and its utterly un-entertaining. This is the single worst film I have seen in years. Starts out with a promising premise, but dissolves into cliché. The no-name actors do an awful job. The acting is wooden and utterly unconvincing. The thing thats most irritating about it is that there is virtually no plot. The premise gets ridden out after about the first 45 minutes and then its just a bunch of standard devices used over and over to try to 'keep you guessing'. The result is phenomenally tedious. There's nothing here for lovers of this genre. Its just badly done. period. 90 mins of your life you will never get back if you are unlucky enough to get stuck in front of it. 1 out of 10.