The Hole
THE HOLE (aka THE HOLE IN 3D) (12)
D: Joe Dante
Big Air/Bold (Claudio Fäh, Michel Litvak, Vicki Sotheran
& David Lancaster)
US 2009
92 mins
Fantasy/Horror
W: Mark L. Smith
DP: Theo Van De Sande
Ed: Marshall Harvey
Mus: Javier Navarette
Chris Massoglia (Dane Thompson), Haley Bennett (Julie
Campbell), Nathan Gamble (Lucas Thompson), Teri Polo (Susan Thompson), Bruce Dern (Creepy Carl)
Joe Dante returns to his regular horror formula of a
rather juvenile story aimed at an older audience (Gremlins, etc.) and it proves a fine return to form for the director, whose career seemed to have been stuck in limbo for the best part of a
decade.
The film is actually rather good, the story concerning two
brothers who move with their mother to a new house where they discover a padlocked trapdoor in the basement, curiosity gets the better of them and they break it open to discover a bottomless
pit beneath, a pit which unleashes an evil which effects them both differently, manifesting itself as something they individually find scary.
While nowhere near as fun as Gremlins, The Hole is still
an effectively creepy family horror which may just be a little too scary for very young children and probably warrants a 12 age rating.
6/10
