Miedos 3D

Just for the records I live in Thailand and this film is receiving the full theatrical treatment and I just attended the premiere.

The only reason I saw it. Is that I saw the name Joe Dante on the poster.

We are now in a period where 3D is in full swing and I have seen "My Bloody Valentine 3D" and "Avatar".

Avatar was great in his own right, but I found the whole thing over the top. Now I like simpler movies in general. So my preference is a question of taste.

Also I not have wide knowledge of 3D and special effects, but I was satisfied.

Anyways back to a normal review. Like Dante promised it's a horror film for the family, and he does what he does best again. Unlike Gremlins or any of his previous family horror film this one scares you as well as being clean.

I had a few jump and was spooked by some scenes.

Also I went with a date and it was a proper film for that. She was holding on to me and the rest... And we were watching a proper film without a ton of gore.

I am not a fan of horror film with too much gore so I was happy. If you like that stuff it's not on "The Hole" menu.

Well the story is simple there is a trap in the basement. Kids open it a their greatest fears become true. Well acted, and well directed with a fresh concept.

A touchdown for Dante.

This movie can easily be summarized: it is like a movie version of a Goosebumps children's "horror" story. Anyone familiar with the Goosebumps book series will know what I mean. This movie is a "horror" movie for young teens and families with children. I watched it without knowing this, and was in for a surprise.

Now, don't get me wrong, this is still a good movie. But if you are expecting to be scared, you are better off watching something more tailored for an adult audience. I am sure lots of the youngsters will find this movie freakishly scary though. There are scenes that might scare younger audiences out of their pants, but at the same time, the movie is still kept at a level where it can be considered suitable for family entertainment somehow. I know it sounds weird, but if you watch the movie, you will know what I mean.

There were some good parts in the movie, but nothing that made me spooked or disturbed. The clown here reminded me somewhat of a mix of the clown doll from "Poltergeist" mixed with Chucky, and it did work well enough.

The effects were good and believable, without being over the top. The movie is not running on special effects, but whatever effects there were being used were straight to the point.

And also the people in the movie put on good performances, and that helped the movie along a good long way. And I think the young actors and actress help appeal to the younger audience.

This movie is suitable for a good evening of slight scares for families and younger teens. Worth the time actually, if you have nothing better to do.

Gremlins remains one of my favourite films from childhood, and it is thanks to Joe Dante who helmed the films with enough to keep it frightening, yet kid friendly and family oriented at the same time. It's been a long while since I've missed Small Soldiers on the big screen, that he now returns with The Hole, yet dabbling with a similar treatment of making it quite the entertaining romp for both young and old to sit through.

A pity about the 3D version though, as I opted to watch this in 2D, and clearly because of the 3D gimmick, there were a few needless scenes stuck in, like having a kid throw a baseball toward the screen while lying on his back on his bed. On the whole there weren't too many deliberate 3D shots designed for the film, though I thought that the special effects put into it were spiffy enough, especially since there was a good mix of traditional stop motion efforts deliberate done in a cheesy manner, and those of the modern money shots toward the end.

As it's family oriented, this film like the rest of what Dante did thus far, has family being in the centre of all things that trip up in the dark, and we get three stories put into one, by virtue of each character having to deal with their fears come alive. Written by Mark L. Smith (Vacancy), the narrative keeps you guessing exactly what the reason is behind the threats are as faced by each child/teenage lead in the Thompson brothers Dane (Chris Massoglia) and Lucas (Nathan Gamble), and their neighbour Julie (Haley Bennett) when they look down the cursed hole, found in the new home of the Thompsons.

The idea is pretty cool in itself, because what could spook you more than what's truly your greatest fear? However that itself served up a mixed bag of scares, because the scares here are customized to the character's. For instance, Lucas has to deal with something straight out of Child's Play, although this little thingamajig had a small scene as a stinger after the end credits (well, if you have to know, it's only a wink, so you didn't miss much if you failed to stay behind). For Julie, it has to deal with a guilt from the past that manifest itself as something spiritual, and to face one's guilt is something that takes up her story arc.

For Dane's however, it was kept under wraps until the last, which provided for a fitting finale with all the bells and whistles thrown in, dealing with how the magnitude of one's problems when young seem to shrink in size as we grow older, possibly because we may either have outgrown it, or that being older we have a lot more other concerns to deal, in his case, the growing into a surrogate paternal role over the care of his younger brother, in a single parent family.

Still, despite being a horror/thriller, this is still something that will find a broad appeal, being somewhat simple in its stories, but nothing less than effective and of course for those catching it in 3D, yet another film to provide you that fixation with putting on the glasses. I'm not quite sure if a sequel would be made given the way it ended with a plot thread so glaringly hanging out, but we know how Gremlins 2 went.

Fear and nostalgia don't often go hand in hand, but the two were riding high in my mind after the screening of The Hole. Coulrophobia, or a fear of clowns, seems to be quite a common phobia amongst my peers and for 99% of us it can be traced back to a certain television show. The Sky One adaptation of Stephen King's It, which aired in 1990. It's main antagonist, a clown named Pennywise, gave me my first real post-horror-film sleepless night. Up to that point the only fear-inducing villains I had been exposed to were Darth Vader and the Wicked Witch of the West. But a samurai robot and a middle-aged woman in green make-up didn't seem quite so scary after watching the terrifying killer clown. Echoes of Pennywise are evident in the ghoulish Jester doll of The Hole. The fact that Joe Dante brings us a family film that manages to instill some levels of discomfort and even fear in adults reminds us why he was such a big name in the 80's. With The Hole, the man behind Gremlins and The 'Burbs goe's back to what he does best; frightening yet family friendly. And he almost succeeds in giving us another great kids film. Almost.

Featuring the aforementioned Jester doll, the corpse of a young girl and some Beetlejuice like nightmare sequences, there are a lot of horror elements of the film to like. These elements are executed well and the use of some traditional stop-motion special effects gave the film an endearing charm. However all of this just served to highlight how awful the 3D was. The digital effect only served to ruin what would otherwise have been a great thowback-to-the-80's look. I ended up watching the second half of The Hole with my Roy Orbison style specs removed.

In my experience, and a lot of people I've discussed it with, the novelty of 3D lasts for roughly the first ten minutes of a film. Afterwards it simply distracts from whats going on and tends to blur any action above a certain speed. It adds nothing to the vast majority of the films released in the format and ultimately becomes headache inducing. Let's hope it's just a Smell-O-Vision style fad that fades away sooner rather than later.

The storyline of The Hole is in no way original and the dialogue is ridiculously bad at times, but on the whole it had a certain charisma about it. Had this been released when I was between eight and twelve years of age it may have been a favourite of mine, along with Ghostbusters and two of Dante's other works Innerspace and Gremlins. It pushes the boundaries of whats acceptable in a film rated 12A, is nicely stylised and has genuinely frightening moments. For a certain age group in years to come, The Hole will evoke great memories of how much fun the cinema can be. If they happen to see a 2D version, all the better.

The Hole 3D (not to be confused with the Thora Birch vehicle of the same name from 2001) is a good old-fashioned horror yarn for youngsters. No gore, no nudity, just good scares! A grumpy teenager and his little brother move with their single mother to a small town. They soon befriend the beautiful girl next door and they happen across a giant, ominous hole in their basement. The hole is seemingly infinite as the boys conduct a series of experiments including lowering a night-vision camcorder down and throwing a handful of nails in (to tremendous 3D effect, as you can imagine). What they don't discover over the course of these experiments is that the hole, once opened, lets loose your greatest fear which then proceeds to stalk you. A simple setup, but it is used very well, not only for thrills but as a sometimes thought-provoking look at the fears that you don't realise you have.

The very obvious but extremely effective "evil clown doll" is great for scares and a hammy throwback to old-school horror of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. The other "fears" are somewhat more cerebral and as the film progresses, some of the fun tends to get lost in the family issues storyline. However, it is a well-written piece and the script reveals drips of information at a suitably subtle pace. The young cast do very well in roles that should have been very annoying and there is an element of class to proceedings overall. While this is certainly not by any means an important or a very original film, it is great to see films aimed at kids that refuses to condescend to them. The Hole plays it for scares, and isn't afraid to do just that. Children will be terrified and delighted in equal measure. The 80's gave us kids' adventures that dripped with real danger like The Goonies or Labyrinth, and of course Joe Dante's Gremlins movies. These films were quite nasty, and unlike most of the saccharine rubbish kids are dealt these days, they are quite menacing. The Hole is a worthy successor to these films and isn't afraid to push your nerves just that little bit further than you might expect.

From the poster and trailer I expected a tween adventure with a supernatural twist akin to Are You Afraid of the Dark or Goosebumps? To my delight, this was far more enjoyable than just a silly kids' film. It is certainly directed towards young teenagers but the great thing about The Hole is that it is actually scary! This film is full of menace but keeps the tone light enough to maintain the element of fun. Dante keeps you on the edge of your seat with constantly mounting tension and silly jumps that make the audience giggle as much as scream. This is as fun as horror gets and for once the gimmick of 3D is used as just that... a gimmick.

Certainly not high-brow but lots of fun and scarier than you might expect!