As other reviewers have noted, Dead Mine is a bit of a mash-up of The Descent with Outpost, but it does have a charm of its own. A key element of the film is that it needed to move much more quickly, but the focus upon Unit 731 is novel and gives the film a sense of originality and a clear rationale for the mutated Japanese soldiers. Of the 'creatures', the differing classes is really interesting, with the muzzled feral creatures acting in an effective way, but the film really scores with the awesome Imperial Guards. Of the Guards, their visual introduction in their terracotta warrior stance is great and they really are impressive and conceptually excellent, to the extent that, while the film ends rather choppily (ha!), I was totally on board with it as I didn't want the splendid Imperial Guard to be defeated! However, they should have been introduced a little sooner and some of the pointless bickering and wandering mid-movie scenes cut down (again, which would have left room for a clearer conclusion). So, a mixed bag of a horror film, but the elements of originality are very good and the main 'villains' are well conceived as who could ever have a problem with zombie samurai?
