Mine 9 (2019)

In a small, struggling coal mine in the Appalachians, a crew of miners heads underground knowing the safety equipment is worn and the gas readings are worrying, because the town has no other work. Two miles below the surface a methane explosion brings down the tunnel, and the survivors are left in the dark with limited oxygen, trying to find a way out before the air runs out. Written and directed by Eddie Mensore, a West Virginian, the film is a low-budget survival thriller that draws on real mining disasters in the region and on the economic desperation that keeps such mines open. It was praised for its claustrophobic tension and its sympathetic portrait of mining communities.