This little gem, which seems to be on many people’s lists of movies wanted but not yet on DVD, is about an abandoned silver mine in Colorado that is scheduled to be opened. Two couples, as well as a couple of miners, run into creatures that local legend calls “Boogens.” The creatures, which look like tentacled bug eyed leeches with a ferocious mouth of teeth, work their way through mine shafts which apparently lead all over town. With the creatures popping up all over who will escape the nightmare?

The credits roll superimposed over a montage of old-time photos and newspaper headlines which give us the history of the silver mine which first appears as a windfall but soon takes a dangerous and ominous turn. The headline progression starts with such headlines as “Mother lode Struck in Rockies,” “Hundreds Pour into Mountains” and “Richest Vein in History.” They then continue only to declare “Two More Cave-Ins” and “Twenty-Seven Trapped in Mine” all the way to “Miners Report Attacks” and finally “Mine Closed.” In about five minutes or so we’ve received a great back story which sets up the movie perfectly without the “info dump” tactic of endless expository dialogue which usually sounds tedious and almost never sounds natural.

The creatures are original looking, with only a glimpse of their clawed tentacles early on and throughout the movie. It’s a very suspenseful tactic and is very effective. You can almost be forgiving when you realize that the actual creatures are basically glorified hand puppets.

This is a movie that many people finally track down if they didn’t see it during its initial theatrical or cable run only to be disappointed when they finally watch it. Anything with over twenty years of hype can ruin the actual product but the movie does hold its own and offers some tense moments. A movie that dared to be original and feature actual monsters that was shown during the peak of the slasher and sequel age deserves to be noticed. The sum is almost never as good as its parts, but the movie exhibits genuine enthusiasm and tries to be suspenseful as possible while throwing out the gore shots that everyone was clamoring for at the time.