Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Ella-May O'Brien
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Jon Plowman
I can't believe I actually sat through this entire movie. What a total waste of time. I think it's the first horror I've ever seen that manages to be both completely boring, while simultaneously constructed almost entirely out of horror movie clichés: small town, check. Dysfunctional family moves into new home, check. Snotty kids, check. Distracted single mother, check. Precocious perky next-door teen girl, check. Creepy little dead girl, check. Creepy evil animated doll, check. Creepy old guy who knows too much, check. Complete failure to act intelligently around supernatural threat, check. About the only thing the film makers didn't use was the screaming cat trope. That's probably the only shock of the entire movie.Best moment of the movie: when Dane accidentally backs into Julie's boobs, and there's a resounding metallic CLANG on the soundtrack.Worst moment: most of the rest of the film could qualify, but probably the worst worst was the entirely flat performances in monotone voices from the cast during the climactic scenes. Oh, and Bruce Dern - who is less than Oscar material at his best - gets a Special Mention for the single worst performance of his career. Give it up, Bruce. It's time to retire, because you're just embarrassing yourself now.The direction was dull, the story trite and boring, the script poorly written with some truly atrocious dialogue, the music was awful, the performances from the entire cast were poor. The cinematography was undistinguished. The special effects weren't the worst part of the whole movie, which doesn't say much.If you're twelve and your parents don't mind you watching scary stuff, you might not find this a complete waste of time. If you're not twelve and you have a brain, you can do far better.
Tss5078
Kids get a bad rap in films. It is assumed because of their age and lack of experience, that they are less talented than adult actors. While in many cases this is true, it is not the rule. Some people I spoke to, immediately had no interest in The Hole, because of it's young cast. Right away they were saying this is going to be a rip off of Goosebumps and didn't even give it a chance. The film may not have been the scariest film I've ever seen, but it had a great backstory, a lot of suspense, and some very talented young actors. Those kids play Dane and Lucas, who are forced to move from the city to the country, to hide from an abusive father. The boys are miserable and decide to explore the old house the family has rented. What they find is a giant hole in the basement, with seemingly no bottom. As they continue to be fascinated by the hole, things in this small town, and especially in this old house just continue to get stranger and stranger, leading to a tremendous ending that will teach the boys, that sometimes the only thing you can do is face your fears. The star of this film is Nathan Gamble, who has done a lot for someone so young. I've seen him in a bunch of things and weather he's playing Commissioner Gordon's son in The Dark Knight, or the young activist in Dolphin's Tale, Gamble just has this way of always pulling at the audiences heart strings. Once again he's this cute, innocent kid, who's been traumatized by years of abuse, yet he still manages to face his fears, unleashed by the hole. I've seen plenty of films where kids in this situation just run away and hide, but that's not his style, and that's part of why this movie isn't a Goosebumps story. The bottom line, I think The Hole will appeal to Science Fiction fans more than Horror fans, despite the fact that it's labelled as Horror. The young cast is refreshingly energetic, curious, and eager, all things that will become contagious, and make the Hole, a much better film than you think it's going to be.
poe426
In the televersion of Stephen king's IT, we find that Pennywise the Clown (very well played by Tim Curry) is able to tap into and make manifest the deepest and darkest of childhood fears. It wasn't all that original an idea back then, and it's even less so after all these years- yet that's the gist of THE HOLE. This is Horror Light at its worst. There's not a single character worth investing in in this movie: all of the Child Actors come across as Child Actors as they recite some of the BLANDEST, most uninteresting lines ever spoken- and the kid called "Smooch" was the worst of the bunch. Bruce Dern (who was completely forgettable in another recent misfire, NEBRASKA) is just going through the motions in a bit part. The production values are impressive, indeed, but that's not enough to make this one worth the time it takes to get through it. Dante can do better.
Jackson Booth-Millard
I saw a short trailer for this film when it was released in cinemas, and then I saw the DVD cover in the stores, I assumed it was a family film of some kind, and I was willing to try it, from director Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins, Small Soldiers). Basically the Thompson brothers, seventeen year old Dane (Chris Massoglia) and ten year old Lucas (Nathan Gamble) have moved with their single mother Susan (Meet the Parents' Teri Polo) from Brooklyn to the countryside of Bensonville, and Dane is getting upset with the constant moving from various cities. Dane does find some excitement in the town living next door to beautiful girl Julie Campbell (Haley Bennett), he pays less attention to Lucas, and while Susan is at work more and more often, the brothers are free to explore the house. It is in the basement that everything changes, they find a trap door covered in padlocks, and cracking it open they find it has a dark and bottomless hole, they try some experiments to investigate why it exists and whether it does have a bottom, and Julie joins in with these tests as well, such as dropping a nail, and lowering a flashlight and camera. To get answers they explore the past of the house, a former owner confirms that opening the hole will release dark evil forces, and soon enough strange things start happening while they are in the basement, and even around the house, such as shadows appearing, and nightmares and personal fears coming true. In the end, Dane is the one who risks his life to save Lucas and Julie from the nasty forces of the hole, and after going into its dark world it collapses around him and the sinister apparition of his criminal father disappears, the trapdoor becomes a set of pipes, and everything seems to have returned to normal. Also starring Bruce Dern as Creepy Carl and Dick Miller as Pizza Delivery Guy. The acting is lame, the story is full of slow moments and plot gaps, and the special effects to make evil clowns and supernatural and monstrous manifestations, including in 3D, are the only good thing, I don't see why the critics give it three our of five stars, I found it boring and predictable, a silly teen focused horror thriller. Adequate, in my opinion!