Writer: Tammy Ang

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Watch this if you liked: “Child’s Play”, “Gremlins”

The legendary director of "Gremlins" and "Small Soldiers", Joe Dante makes a comeback with 3D horror feature - "The Hole". 17-year-old Dane (Chris Massoglia) and his 10-year-old brother Lucas (Nathan Gamble) move from New York to the sleepy town of Bensonville, where they discover and unlock a heavily pad-locked hole at the basement of their house. Eventually, it brings them and their neighbour Julie (Haley Bennett) into a roller coaster of their deepest and darkest fears.

Shot entirely in 3D, the movie won Venice Film Festival's first Premio Persol to a 3-D feature, outshining competitors namely "Up", "Coraline", "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs", and "My Bloody Valentine". It was a well-deserved win as the scenes were carefully composed, and you can see depth in setting as if you are in the place itself. One of the scenes worth mentioning is when audiences' viewpoint is place at the ceiling and Lucas throws a baseball upwards as if he's throwing it at your face!

Although the film's introduction may be slow and bland, but with some patience, viewers will find an interesting plot that unveils Dane and Julie's past. The climax where Dane faces his worst fears is attractively shot using a German Expressionism style, which comprises of wildly non realistic and geometrically absurd set (resembling the artistic manner of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"). It showcases a completely different world and dimension that is brilliantly used as a metaphor in reflecting Dane's darkest fear in his mind. Due to budget restriction, the director and production team had to build weird sets to film the scene, which on the other worked very well for the climax. The cinematography is well composed, especially the scene where Creepy Carl (Bruce Dern) is introduced with the room filled with hanging light bulbs, and another scene of the abandoned amusement park.

The downfall however, is the lack of creativity in its scare factor as we have seen the tactics before like a spooky young girl in the toilet, creepy toy, door slamming on its own, and the rapid turning of a door knob. Moreover, the bodily movement of ghosts crawling awkwardly back into the hole heavily resembles those of Japanese horrors. It's disappointing as more is expected of Dante to create a similar impact as how "Gremlins" did.

Dante is known to work with the same actors over a long period of time. A very good example is Dick Miller's cameo appearance as a pizza delivery man in "The Hole", who had appeared in many of his movies before. Mentioning about casting, the spooky girl in this movie is actually Quinn Lord, who is a boy, not a girl.

If you are looking for gory, bloody or scaring your heart out kind of movie, skip this one. "The Hole" is more of a mild thriller and family-friendly teenage horror. In fact you might even find some comedic scenes which tickle you funny bone here and there.

Cinema Online, 30 August 2010