Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

udar55 A group of 7 gold prospectors head into a mine that was recently opened back up after an earthquake. Of course, they don't pay attention to local legend that something is down there and killing people. This low budget ($25,000) horror flick has a slight cult following and I'm not exactly sure why (unless it is because it is so obscure). I'll admit the last half hour is pretty entertaining, but the hour getting there is pure torture. Lots of walking and talking and our titular strangeness doesn't appear until 45 minutes in. Even in the extras co-writer Chris Huntley admits it commits the unforgivable sin of being boring. I would forgive them if they were strict amateurs, but this group graduated from USC so I would hope they know an exploitation film should be exploitive. Anyway, like I said, the last half hour is cool as three survivors battle the stop motion monster and there is a cool John Carpenter-like score. I wanted to see more of the monster, but it is literally on screen for 45 seconds.Even if the movie isn't the best, Code Red DVD has given this great attention. You have interviews and an audio commentary by director Melanie Anne Phillips, producer/actor Mark Sawicki and co-writer Huntley. The tales about how the film was made are pretty fascinating and inspiring (like a cave set being built in a backyard). Even more interesting are Sawicki and Huntley's USC student shorts, which are actually all better than the feature production. Huntley was a pretty talented artist and it is a shame he didn't go on to anything else. Sawicki has worked steadily in Hollywood as a visual effects and camera guy. The film's VHS is kind of legendary for how dark it was and I'm sure this is much better. However, you still get scenes where the only image are five helmet lights bouncing around in the blackness. Safe to say, the original MY BLOODY VALENTINE is still "horror film set in a mine" champ.

lovecraft231 Ah, Code Red, you have a tendency to release rarities to DVD that range from lost classics ("Soul Survivor" and the upcoming Messiah of Evil" SE) to terrible ("Don't Go In The Woods...Alone!") to watchable but mediocre ("The Unseen" and "The Dead Pit") and the truly mind boggling ("Boardinghouse") Well, "The Strangeness" falls into the third category. I've been wanting to see it since I read the entry on it in Stephen Thrower's essential 70's/80's Horror Tome "Nightmare USA," and lo and behold, Code Red gives it a DVD release.The plot is nothing special: A group of people people surveying a abandoned mine end up trapped in a cave, and what do ya know, a slimy tentacled monster. So yeah, nothing new, and nothing spectacular. On the plus side, the creature itself is a pretty nifty creation-done using Stop-Motion animation, and looking like a mix of H.R Giger (it's pretty much looks like a combination of a phallus and a vagina) and Lovecraft. Also, the direction is competent, the low budget sets are convincing and the John Carpenter like score is a lot of fun.On the other hand, the acting is terrible (it's pretty much amateur hour here) and this was done with a PG rating, so those expecting plenty of gore will be let down considerably, as the majority of the deaths occur off screen. Plus, the Stop-Motion creature certainly has it's charms, though the animation itself is a bit jerky.So, is it worth it? Well, it's certainly no "The Descent" that's for sure. On the other hand, if you have fond memories for not yet on DVD cave creature flicks like "What Waits Below" and "The Boogens", then this might be worth it. It's no classic, but there's worse ways to spend your time.

Woodyanders Basically an endearingly chintzy and moronic $1.50 version of the nifty early 80's subterranean creature feature favorite "The Boogens," this entertainingly schlocky cheapie centers on a nasty, squirmy, wriggling monster who makes an instant meal out of any unfortunate souls foolhardy enough to go poking around the notoriously off limits Gold Spike Mine. Your standard-issue motley assortment of intrepid boneheads -- hectoring hard-nosed mine boss, cute, but insipid blonde babe, feisty lady geologist, boozy, inexplicably Aussie-accented (!) seasoned old mine hand, charmless doofus, hunky, jolly guy, and, arguably the most annoying character of the uniformly irritating bunch, a nerdy bespectacled aspiring writer dweeb who's prone to speaking in flowery, melodramatic utterances -- trek into the dark, uninviting cave in search of gold. Naturally, these intensely insufferable imbeciles discover that the allegedly abandoned mine is the home of a deadly, ugly, multi-tentacled beast who in time honored hoary B-flick fashion proceeds to gruesomely bag the group one at a time. Directed, co-written, co-produced and co-edited with dumbfounding maladroitness by Melanie Anne Phillips, acted with dismaying flatness by a rank no-name cast, further marred by lethargic pacing, a drably meandering narrative, murky, under-lit, eye-straining cinematography, a shivery, redundantly thudding pseudo-John Carpenter synthesizer score, and a cruddy, herky-jerky stop motion animation wormoid thingie that's only quickly glimpsed at the very end of the movie, this extremely clunky, amateurish and hence quite delectably dreadful would-be scarefest commits all the necessary bad film missteps to qualify as a real four-star stinkeroonie.

EyeAskance A geological expedition of an abandoned mine becomes a living nightmare when its members find themselves trapped underground with a hulking, tentacled vagina monster. The interesting looking beast is brought to life via stop-motion animation(with marginal success). This creature, of origins which are never conclusively deduced, appears to digest its victims externally by covering them with a thick, enzymatic slime.This unjustly overlooked monster movie was clearly produced on breadcrumb rations, but well-maintained suspense and a dark, foreboding atmosphere make up heartily for its bush-league deficiencies. Not a classic, perhaps, but certainly deserving of a more prominent placement within the annals of horror cinema.6/10... Recommended.