The Hole Review

• 6th Jan 2011

First of all it must be stated that it is great to have Joe Dante back. He still has his directorial charm about him and has picked a film here that has many aspects of films that he done before. In fact it also has echoes of many other films from the 80s from The Lost Boys to Poltergeist.

A mother moves with her two sons to a new neighbourhood. One young and idealistic, intent on having fun and playing, the other – a stroppy teen. It becomes evident that they have been moved around a lot (thanks to a jailbird daddy).

It isn’t long before the teen is swooning towards the girl next door and, in the middle of their daily routine, they happen upon a large trap door in the basement. Curiosity takes over and the locks are snapped and they discover a large hole, bottomless pit even! It is from here that things start to go bump in the night.

It is sad that it must also be stated that this film isn’t quite the kiddie horror it is trying to be. In fact the further the film goes on, the younger the audience appeal!

Perhaps things are different in America but it is hard to feel too much sympathy for a single mothered family who can somehow manage to afford to move about at will and buy houses stupidly big for a family of three. Matters are not helped by the fact that we are introduced to a group of characters who you couldn’t care less about. The older of the two brothers is probably the most brattish teen you will see for a while. Whilst his age and plight make sense, it is probably the actor in question who fails to bring it across as anything other than pure annoying. But if you like bad acting then wait until his big final scene. It’s cringe worthy.

In fact the finale is one of the biggest perpetrators here as the film takes a dive into the hole and lands in what can only be described as the set of an 80s rock music video. I spent the entirety of this scene expecting Spinal Tap to pop out from a corner and scream the chorus to “Hell Hole.”

It’s clearly a case of poor design, poor budget and bad lighting (not helped by the smoke). Hence this could be why the audience age appeal drops towards the end. Yes the end is all rather a bit predictable and silly. What started as a nice retrospective 80s creepy thriller soon descends into bad 80s cliché.

Basically this film is for the audience age on the box. It will have a good effect on the young and works well as the type of film that scared us as kids. So if you have kids now this is a perfect title to help them slowly come of age. Not many directors make films like this any more, so it must be handed to Dante for keeping the chills alive to terrify youngsters. We just hope that Dante does something else soon as he still has some magic working.

Steven Hurst