The Hole - 3D English Movie
There's something admirable in a horror film that does not use blood or gore to titillate but tries to rely on well proven suspense methods to drive a chill down your spine. "The Hole" is that film and despite its failings, it is perfect for the audience it targets - teenagers.
Dane (Chris Massoglia), a grumpy teenager, and his kid brother Lucas (Nathan Gamble) move with their single mother to a small town home. They become friends with their beautiful teenage neighbour Julie (Haley Bennett). The three discover a hole in their basement that seems to be bottomless.
Young as they are, they do not tell their parents. But strange things start happening around them and the three will have to face the greatest horrors of their lives - their personal fears.
Personal demon manifesting itself by some power is an old cinematic formula. Right from Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris" to the sci-fi film "Sphere", there have been endless films on the same.
The concept may not be original, but the execution, despite the cliches, seems so. What sets "The Hole" apart is that it pitches the same idea to a very young generation with a very simple message - the greatest thing to fear is fear itself.
The film does not go too high on the gore factor which is a good thing considering the age of its audience. But sadly, this young audience is already exposed to more gore as there is more blood in a 10-year-old's video game than in this entire film.
Yet, the heart of the film is in the right place. It uses horror to drive home the importance of fearlessness in the minds of its young audience. Instead of special effects and pointless made up faces of blood and excessive violence, it uses anticipation of horror by building up many false starts with all known sound cliches of a horror film as a tool to drive home the chill factor.
Considering that very few films even try makes this 3D effort praiseworthy.
The film is also light on needless jargon or philosophizing. "The Hole" thus becomes a good, decent film to introduce kids to the horror genre and, hopefully, there would be a sequel to it. It is a film that is rife with potential.
