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The Hole (2009)

Director: Joe Dante

Time Out rating

Average user rating

7 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

For the first hour of this haphazard 3D adventure, it feels as if Joe ‘the subversive Spielberg’ Dante has never been away: here come the lovingly written kids from ‘Explorers’, moving into the white-picket American fairyland of ‘The 'burbs’ and promptly being terrorised by mystical, malevolent beings à la ‘Gremlins’. Said supernatural critters emanate from the mysterious, padlocked, seemingly bottomless pit beneath the boys’ new house, and Dante plays the early scenes perfectly, racking up the clammy dread without tipping over into outright nastiness.
But somewhere along the way, the tension dissipates: once the somewhat pedestrian truth about the hole is revealed, there’s nowhere for the film to go. Dante pulls off a visually bold, thematically bleak finale, inspired equally by Bernard Rose’s dreamy teen shocker ‘Paperhouse’ and his own berserk ‘Twilight Zone: The Movie’ segment, but never quite claws back the sustained suspense of those superb early sequences. Nevertheless, it’s good to welcome back one of the undisputed masters of modern genre cinema – and adventurous kids will love it.

Author: Tom Huddleston

Time Out London Issue 2092: 23–29 September, 2010

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User reviews of this film

Nicole Joules said...

Posted on Oct 15 2010 14:19 Ohh by the way my rating on The Hole, because i forgot to put it on my last comment is.........4 stars, only beacuse it kinda scared the crap out of me. Especially that little clown, i haeva big fear of clowms =(

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Nicole Joules said...

Posted on Oct 15 2010 14:17 This film was absolutley scary. Ok so there wasnt loads of people in there, but to be honest i went late on a school/work night, so what do you expect people are in bed. But anyway this was so scary and so jumpy, it was very good. The whole 3D thing is....well CRAP!! Cinema 3D has been and is always just foreground and background, And the point people are making about when you find out more about The Hole, the boring it gets... That is a whole load of Hooey!!!! The film didn't gett better, but it certainly didn't get worse, if anything it make more interesting and a 'what's gonna happen now?' type of way. So most, or nearly all of you people dont no Good films when you see them, so give up trying OK!!!

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_Matt_1977_ said...

Posted on Oct 10 2010 00:33 Really good and really creepy... apart from the climactic conflict where the point of the hole is made clear, at which point the film comes over as utterly juvenile and childish. Still enjoyable up to that point, but after that it leaves you with a bitter taste in your mouth at such a let-down. Is it harsh to give it two stars? Well, I dunno. I guess I think it matters how a film ends.

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Dave said...

Posted on Oct 01 2010 13:52 not as good as it sets out to be as it seems to lose credulity as you find out more about the hole, and we are no wiser as to why it is there at the end of the movie.
Chris Massoglia is very good - a star in the making. Teri Polo as the mother seems to leave her kids alone a lot!
Perhaps I am too old for this film.

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JayneM said...

Posted on Sep 26 2010 20:27 Enjoyed this film, but I agree with sara1, the clown was very creepy, A coupkle of people left the movie, so dont know if it was too scary for the younger audience

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sara1 said...

Posted on Sep 26 2010 10:44 I took my 12-year old son to watch this and i found the first half very creepy! Im not a fan of 3D but have to admit it works here. My son also found some bits scary ( the clown!)

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scrumpyjack said...

Posted on Sep 23 2010 19:59 If you detest the very thought of 3D, look away now!
It transforms this from a 3* to a 4*....so there! 7+/10

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