500 Days Of Film Reviews The Hole And Finds A Movie That Exploits Our Secret, Childhood Fears
The Hole sees brothers Dane (Chris Massoglia) and Lucas (Nathan Gamble) move to a new town with their mother.
While exploring their new home, they discover a trap door in the floor of their basement. The door has many padlocks. Many, many padlocks.
So, what do they do? Well this is a horror movie after all… And so the brothers, along with their new neighbour Julie (Haley Bennett), do the very thing that you just wouldn’t - they open the door and find a (seemingly) bottomless hole.
Inconveniently, by opening the hole and staring into its dark face they unleash something really rather evil.
Will any of them survive to tell the tale?
Is It Any Good?
The Hole is really good fun. It is creepy and jumpy, the effects are cool and it made me laugh in places too.
It moves along slightly predictable lines but that feels right because director, Joe Dante (Gremlins) wanted to make it a film for 12 year olds.
Indeed, at the time of The Hole’s release. its rating raised quite a few eyebrows. This is partly why I wanted to include it in my film challenge.
Having watched it, I can understand the controversy. It is quite full on. (The British Board Of Film Classification comments that the film contains “sustained moderate horror”.)
Personally, I wouldn’t recommend the film to anyone under 12 - particularly if they, like me, are terrified of clowns. Because, at its heart, The Hole is about our childhood fears - and it exploits those fears pretty well.
Random Observations
I hate jump scares… no I love them… no I hate them…
The previous owner sure left a lot of stuff in the basement… I’d call the estate agent about that…
I was pretty concerned about that little dog all the way through..,
Don’t do that, don’t go there, for goodness sake keep together people!
Favourite Quote: “I know what you’ve got. You’ve got a gateway to hell under your house and that is really cool” - Julie