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[The Hole 3D]
Plot:Two brothers discover a mysterious hole in the basement that leads to their worst nightmares.
Cast:Haley Bennett,
Teri Polo,
Chris Masoglia,
Nathan Gamble.
My Thoughts:Average tale of supernatural hijinx.
Review:"The Hole 3D" is Joe Dante's tale of what occurs after two boys, who have just moved into a new neighborhood...discover a mysterious hole in the basement of their house. The hole has a large wooden door, with locks on it. The houses previous owner apparently locked the door up tightly, so whatever was inside couldn't get out. The boys of course pay no attention to this, and open it up anyways.
That's when the supernatural forces inside begin to come out and cause trouble. Although it doesn't happen right away, but when the younger brother finds an evil-looking clown doll on his bed one afternoon, that's the turning point for everything. Joe Dante certainly put a lot of imagination into this movie, and the story is creative enough. But in this day and age of horror fans being sick and tired of watered down horror films, "The Hole 3D" just doesn't work all that well.
And it's not because the movie is bad, terribly conceived, or anything like that. It's just that it doesn't carry a big enough "scare card"...if you will, to be totally effective from a viewership standpoint. Granted, the characters in the film being two young boys, and their next door neighbor, a girl who's close to their age...makes the fact that they explore and open up this hole, a more normal and less annoying plot point.
Sure, if adults had messed with this thing, it'd just be another one of those horror films where some overly-curious people ended up getting themselves killed and no one would feel an ounce of pity for them. But these main characters are kids, so we can overlook their curiosity as youthful transgressions. But that still doesn't let the film off the hook for not being scary. Beforehand, I had suspected that this wasn't going to be a truly creepy horror film. I'd see the poster, some pics, and the trailers. And it looked on a scale of 1 through 10, about a 3 at best when it came to being genuinely scary.
After seeing the actual film, I'd probably keep that number at 3. It's a 3 on the scare-o-meter. It's not going to click well if you're a horror fan who likes your supernatural horror films to be in the vein of "The Grudge", "The Ring", or stuff like that. This is lite horror. More for the 8 to 15 crowd. And I think Joe, who directed "Gremlins", probably designed the movie that way. But for some reason, "The Hole" didn't have the same adult charm that "Gremlins" did. "Gremlins" could appeal to any audience. Kids, teens young adults, adults.
It had something for everybody. Truly, a universal horror film. "The Hole" however doesn't spread out that way. And once the films big twist, reveals the secret of the titular hole's supernatural mojo, the film becomes an even smaller being. And what was once a movie with some decent promise, soon becomes nothing more than a spooky tale that's afraid to take risks. Maybe if I were younger, in my "Goosebumps" and "Tales From The Darkside" days, I would've liked "The Hole" more.
But when you're a horror fan over 21, this kind of stuff just doesn't make the grade. The movies story, characters, directing, and plot are all very solid and strong. But the scares and entertainment value just are not there. And when that's the case, a movie is doomed to fail from the very beginning.
Positives:A strong story, good acting, decent characters, and an intriguing overall idea for a film.
Negatives:All of these things however culminate into zero scares, and a lack of entertainment value. The film doesn't balance out it's appeal to younger horror fans, with anything for older ones.
Overall:One and a half stars out of four.
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