The Hole

What an unexpected treat The Hole is. Though it has that Saturday afternoon matinee feel to it, for adults it will bring back teenage memories of watching such films as Gremlins, Ghostbusters and the nasty bits from Indiana Jones. The memories being the nightmares such films induced on innocent minds, despite the low certification of the films in question. The Hole should produce similar sleepless nights for anyone 10 years old and younger I’d guess. But hey, it’s a cinema education we all went through and, dare I say it, require? As for adults watching The Hole, it’s unlikely you’ll get scared at all (unless you have a phobia of puppets or clowns) but you’ll still have a great time. The mention of Gremlins above is intentional as it is the director of that 80’s classic, Joe Dante, who has the reigns here as well. In The Hole, a family move into a new home and the two young brothers in the family discover a pad locked trapped door in the basement. After eventually opening the door, and finding what appears to be a bottomless pit, strange and unsettling things begin to occur. Saying anymore will spoil the explanation of the actual hole itself, but what does happen will be fingers over the eyes time for some people. In fact, one scene where one character discovers a Ringu type girl (bleeding from her eyes!) in a toilet will have everyone thinking that someone in the BBFC was having a particularly mischievous day in giving the film such a kiddie friendly certificate. I mentioned Ringu there and there are numerous other nods of the head here to various horror films (I counted at least 7 or 8), but Dante uses them as homage’s as opposed to outright plagiarism. The young actors don’t blow you away (they’re mainly eye candy for the younger members of the audience) but, crucially, they’re not annoying. Unfortunately, the ending is a big let down, spoiled by the obvious decision to get as much out of the 3D as they can, and a final scene that sees the characters make such a stupid decision they appear to have forgotten the whole previous 90 minutes of the film.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
One of the scariest “children’s” films ever? Very possibly, but even if you’re immune to the scares you’ll still have a good time. Rating: 7/10.