SWEET ANGEL MINE

UK/Canada, 1996, 88 minutes, Colour.
Oliver Millburn, Alberta Watson, Margaret Langrick, Anna Massey.
Directed by Curtis Radclyffe.

Sweet Angel Mine is a Canadian/British co-production, a focus on a sinister house. A young man in search of his father encounters a young woman who is psychologically terrorised by her mother. He tries to rescue her.

The film stars British Oliver Milburn and Anna Massey with Canadian Alberta Watson. It was directed by Curtis Radclyffe, his sole effort at film-making until 2007 with The Sick House.

The film is strong on atmosphere – a genre film that will satisfy its targeted audience.

1. The blend of horror and menace? Credible? Contrived characters and plot?

2. The title, the mother-daughter relationship?

3. The Nova Scotia settings and atmosphere: the sea, the shore, the loneliness, the town? The musical score?

4. The background, the credits and the chase, the kill? The disappearance and search?

5. Paul as a character, coming to the town, the police, the beach? His meeting with Rauchine? The house and its sinister atmosphere? The work, the meal? Dreams? Sex and violence? The threats, the escape and Rauchine? The attack, the shooting? The return? Tied up, the crucifix, the torture? Rauchine and death? The escape?

6. Megan in herself, work, alone, her talking with her mother? Rauchine and the bond? The angel, the discipline? Paul, work, meal, dreams, vengeance? Rauchine gone? The return, telling the truth, madness, torture, truth and death?

7. Rauchine, sheltered? The beach, the tree? At home, her work? Relationship with her mother? Ordinary life, the meals, the dress? Leaving? The bar and the rape? Her naivety? Sex and the return? The truth, saved?

8. The ghost and the presence of the ghost? Talk, fate and vengeance? The man, the sexual approach, death? The skeleton?

9. The role of the police, inquiries, death?

10. The group, the wild man and the attack? Wanting the bike? The couple at the bar, the photos?

11. A sinister atmosphere, sexuality and violence, sin and retribution?