|
The Hole 3D
| Released |
22 September 2010 |
| Director |
Joe Dante |
Starring
|
Chris Massoglia, Haley Bennett, Nathan Gamble, Teri Polo, Bruce Dern |
| Writer(s) |
Mark L. Smith |
| Producer(s) |
Claudio Fah, Michel Litvak, Vicki Sotheran, David Lancaster |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
93 minutes |
| Genre |
Horror |
| Rating |
15A |
|
|
A hole lotta fun.
After years of exposing myself to every horror film I can get my hands on I have become pretty hard to scare. However, there are a few old chestnuts that never fail to raise hair on the back of the neck; clowns, ghostly little girls and the thought that there isn’t just dust hiding under the bed. So it was that I found myself jumping and laughing my way through Joe Dante’s The Hole 3D, even though I have long since passed the 15A of its rating.
Director of Gremlins, The ‘Burbs and some episodes of cult kids TV show Eerie, Indiana, Dante has a great knack for mixing comedy and horror as well as making the most innocuous of suburban settings seem suddenly sinister. Here, a single mother (Teri Polo) moves from Brooklyn to a leafy suburb to give her two sons a better life. While the younger immediately settles in, her teenage son is suitably unimpressed until he discovers both an attractive neighbour and a seemingly never-ending hole in the basement.
For anyone who grew up in the ‘80s, The Hole will feel like an old friend. Far from the day-glo high school sagas of late, this is the kind of family friendly adventure that isn’t afraid to play in the dark, calling to mind The Goonies, The Lost Boys and Back to the Future (there is even a turn by Bruce Dern in what appears to be a Doc Brown outfit). Dante coaxes some charismatic turns from his three young leads, all of whom err just on the right side of precocious. Nathan Gamble, who you may recognise from Frank Darabont’s The Mist, is particularly charming as the clown-plagued Lucas.
I would love to give The Hole an unsullied review but unfortunately there was one glaring black mark - the 3D presentation. Although it was shot in 3D rather than retrofitted, the quality in places is shockingly bad. When added to the colour palette of blacks and silvers, the glossiness of the 3D effects make a great deal of the action very hard to make out.
Still though, if you persevere through the visual difficulties, The Hole is tremendous fun and well worth catching even if your teenage years are far behind you.
- Linda O’Brien |
