The Hole 3D Review

In Dante’s first film since the catastrophe that was Looney Toons: Back In Action in ’03; in The Hole, he returns to his roots with this child aimed horror with hints of his Gremlins best. The film’s basic plot surrounds the story of 2 boys (Chris Massoglia and Nathan Gamble) who, upon moving into their new house, discover a mysterious hole in their basement. With their next door neighbour (Haley Bennet), the hole begins to bring all their worst fears to life.

Within the movie world, there has been considerable amount of hype surrounding this film – acting almost as either the saviour or final damning of Dante’s past and future career. So, what is the verdict? Dante’s is back on track if with a bit of rust in his wheels. Dante’s strengths were/are his use of the camera, his ability to create believable characters and the ability to provide maximum shock for the very minimum. Dante’s camerawork, helped by D.O.P Theo van der Sande, is great. Instead of providing us with patronising shots from up above, he brings us down to the kids level. He makes us relive what made us scared when we were young. The best moments shone with Gremlins brilliance and really brought back the vitality that has been long absent from Dante’s other films – in particular, the moment with Lucas (Nathan Gamble) and the unstoppable clown; incredibly well-shot and genuinely scary. However, unlike many other reviews, I must take of my rose tinted Dante sunglasses and look at it as a normal film and indeed, there are problems.

Firstly, the 3D is clunky and unneccesary and is simply pandering to the younger audience in an attempt to hold their attention for the whole 90 minutes. E.G when Lucas throws the ball in the air and catches it…yes we get it, it’s 3D. *yawn*. In normal 2D, I can imagine the film being a rather dull spectacle at times with some scenes simply washing over you. However, the 3D is merely a filming/marketing technique and not a great defect of the film; however one defect comes in the form of some pretty poor dialogue.

In this modern era, it’s really hard to write dialogue for children without coming out at extremes whether it be Nick Jonas/Miley Cyrus spiel or too-cool-for-school Juno. In attempting to hit the middle ground of just describing normal kids, some of his 80s style dialogue doesn’t ring true. The opening and closing scenes involving their mother are damn cringe worthy. It’s just awkward. Furthermore, with a 12A certificate clearly in mind, “goodness” and “gosh” ring out constantly with the odd “dickhead” to seem really edgey.

However, this is all a bit harsh. The film is meant for children hitting their pre-teen stride and in that sense it’s great. Until the end, the suspense of what does the hole mean excites and intrigues with each character experiencing different things highlighting the fact that not every child is the same. It’s a story about morales without being too patronising; although Dante does allow himself some preaching time towards the end. Indeed, the pay-off of The Hole is not well executed with the grand reveal not being half as scary as the previous 80 minutes build up.

Nevertheless, as a film directed at kids, starring kids and focused on kids – it’s a refreshing little film falling alongside The Spiderwick Chronicles and Bridge to Terabithia nicely. For us bigger kids, it’s a rather effective little film that anyone could happily sit through again. The greatest point of all is that it finally heralds the return of Joe Dante with strong glimpses in this film of his previous best. One should not jump the gun here and state he is back to his best as there is much more in the tank from the great man but boy, it’s good to see a him back in the game. However, next time, go right back to the start – bring us a proper horror for the big kids.

3/5