Joe Dante has been a favorite director of mine. Whether it’s the original “Piranha” to the crazy horror film “Gremlins” to the insane “Small Soldiers”, all those films had a campy and fun tone to them. His latest film in ten year “The Hole” is a departure from those films.
The film is about a family, who moves into a new home in the suburbs. Dane and his little brother along with a young neighbor discover a trap door in the basement of the home. Once opening it, they discover a mysterious hole. What they didn’t realize, they’ve opened long buried secrets that sets to haunt them. Now, to stop all this mysterious activity, they have confront their darkest secerts.
I was very surprised that I liked “The Hole, considering it doesn’t feature the crazy action that usually happens during Joe Dante’s films. I was going into the film thinking this was going to be a trainwreck, instead this felt like a very good episode of “Are You Afraid of the Dark” or “Goosebumps”.
This might not be one Dante’s most memorable films, but I liked how he approaches this film. He does a very good job keeping the film’s tone and images very dark. This film feels more like a film for young adults, but he does a very good job keeping your interest through the various dark images. It helped give the film its creepy tone, which was very needed for a film of this caliber to grab me interest. The other thing that I liked was the way that Dante handles his mostly young cast. He does a very good job making their performances interesting and not annoying. Dante works well with his lead young actors to make the performances engaging enough to make it work. By doing that, the film works for the average horror fan and you’re not feeling like you sat through a boring children’s horror film.
The screenplay written by Mark L. Smith does a very good building tension in some of the film’s scarier moments. Those scenes developed very well and had a creepy feeling to the scenes. It adds to the film story and makes you forget that you watching a film that caters to young adults. The other thing Smith does well, he develops the characters. I liked the fact that there is back story to each of the main characters that develops during the course of the film. It makes the characters interesting and allowed me to be interested in both the characters and the story. That’s what you want with a film like this. I’m surprised that more films of this nature don’t do it.
Don’t expect any crazy action here, as the “The Hole” is very effective horror film that brings scares and features solid direction from Joe Dante. A must see for those young adults this Halloween season.
Review Rating: 3.5 Stars
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