MamaGravity
good back-story, and good acting
Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Robert Joyner
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
torrascotia
I was at a Q&A with the director Joe Dante and the topic of this movie came up. Its clear that this film has been missed by many due to its lack of distribution. However its well worth your time if you can track it down. Its basically a teen psychological horror which has themes from a number of 80s horrors like IT, Puppetmaster, The Gate and Paperhouse. It was originally a 3D movie however its still watchable in 2D. Theres a few old faces from previous Dante movies although the rest of cast may be new to you but they all do a great job. I'd recommend this as a family/teen fun horror that wont give the kids nightmares.....unless they have a thing about clowns.
RaoulGonzo
Finding a seemingly infinite hole in the basement of their new home. Two brothers and the girl next door soon find their fears start coming to life. Not a particularly original concept, playing with fears either conscious or not but always a good opportunity for some inventive scares. I believe this was Joe Dante's 'comeback' after a few years in a directing Haitus. At the time I remember being interested, along with John Carpenters 'the ward' which was his first feature in a decade. The Ward I watched with unspectacular results. The hole doesn't make a promising start as we are introduced to the two stiff lead brothers, they crawl into their role eventually but are largely unemotive (is that a word?). It's the introduction early on to Haley Bennet who plays the girl next door that really lights up the film. She is the star, and does an amazing job with some of the more drub dialog. She is the key for making the relationships believable. Bruce Dern gets five minutes to chew the scenery, which is an added bonus. The hole (in 3D, which I forget about and counts for some of the bad visuals) gets straight on with the horror, the horror is family friendly and really does play to its target audience. Age old fears are played with - toy clowns, what's under the bed etc. Nothing new for anyone with even a vague knowledge of the genre. There are effective scares here as Dante plays with an unnerving tone, there is an over reliance on score but it doesn't bother too much. There are some outrages character decisions as the tale becomes more fantasy than horror. You really just have to skip over that. In the end The Hole is an entertaining teen horror, the fast pace is ideal to cover plot holes and it's never dull if all a little predictable.
Xlyfindel
This is really a kids film. I went in expecting something more like the Ring or Ouji and taking the blurb to heart I was prepared for some spooky creepiness. I wasn't disappointed with the special effects, and the creepy girl crawling back into the hole definitely got my attention, but the pace and dialogue are definitely aimed at engaging and relating to a pg audience and not really scary or interesting by horror movie standards. Also, the acting was really pretty lame, the little boy was OK, but the other two had such forced and stilted interactions with each other and the other characters that it was actually an effort not to just give up watching part way through. It felt very compartmentalized and I was honestly disappointed at the lack of deaths happening, not even deaths off-screen or something. The old guy who owned the place before the family moved in promised they would all die, but it didn't even come close, 0 out of 3(4?)! When the clown doll didn't grow Freddy claws and slaughter the kid I knew something was up and that is when I looked it up on my phone here and saw that the rating was pg13 and I just sat through the rest of it ashamed for myself and the movie.
Leofwine_draca
A highly disappointing children's horror film, especially so given the calibre of cult director Joe Dante. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this is Dante's worst film, at least of the ones I've (usually) had the pleasure of watching so far.The big problem with THE HOLE is the script, written by the same guy who brought us VACANCY and VACANCY 2. It has the same paucity of imagination as either of those movies; I feel that the writer was brought up on the fun-filled adventures of the 1980s and tries to recapture the same spirit here, but despite flashes of inspiration the results never gel.Not that Dante doesn't try; indeed there are occasional glimpses of his old magic at work, but they're few and far between. The first half of the film is the best, a slow exercise in gradual build-up that benefits from a decent performance from the child actor Nathan Gamble. Unfortunately, that same slowness continues into the second half, where the promise of a spectacular denouement never arrives and it all ends in the most lacklustre way imaginable.The horror is limited to old tropes borrowed from the likes of POLTERGEIST and THE RING and there's no imagination to be found anywhere. The CGI effects are pretty poor and although I saw this in 2D it appeared that the 3D wasn't up to much either. Altogether a very poor effort from a usually reliable source.
