The Hole-Fear Hath No Bottom-Unhinged Reviews

  Just so no one is confused before reading any further, this is the 2009 teen version of "The Hole", not Nick Hamm's more adult story.  Now that that's out of the way, let's begin..lol.  "The Hole" was actually a pretty good film for a kid-friendly scare, in our opinion.  With Joe Dante directing, it's no wonder that the film had all of the right elements without needing to apply excessive gore.  Not that anything's wrong with gore, but it definitely would have required these young actors to perform some questionable activities at such a young age.  

  Think about it, did we really want to see an 11-yr old, Gamble(Lucas)  taking a chainsaw to some evil hallucination coming out of the floor?  Maybe for some, but "The Hole", as a whole, would have easily lost it's appeal with the concerned parents of the 

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world.  Now, to give the casting some credit, Haley Bennett(Julie) was already of age during filming with Massoglia(Dane) trailing along at 17, only a few months short of being able to buy his first pack of cigarettes. So when you take Dante's youthful cast into account, we can simply call "The Hole" a hat trick well done.  

  So for the story of "The Hole", the movie basically begins with a family of 3, Dane, Lucas and mother, Susan(Polo)moving into a home that has a peculiar trapdoor lined with locks upon locks that the kids stumble onto while being typical brothers.  You know the average horseplay that occurs from boredom amongst siblings.   The brothers being curious, decide to open the door and find a bottomless pit with what appears to be no end.  This is where the cute, Julie steps in and helps the boys satisfy their curiosity of the newly found bottomless pit.  But little do they know, just how deep the hole can go.

  Believe it or not, this film has a few take-away worthy jewels embedded in it's structure amidst the fact that the movie is only rated, PG-13.  Questions such as "What happens to our fear when the trigger is out of sight? and "Do we just forget our juvenile fears when we grow up?", clearly come into play, as these inquires are interlaced throughout most of the film's framework.  One would like to think that our childhood concerns dissipate and we miraculously become immune to worry, but as a lot of us adults have found out, "You can't run from your thoughts".  No matter what you do, you can't allow bad memories/thoughts to dictate your next step, especially, if you truly want to find your peace on earth.  So what do you do?

  You must confront the fear.  No matter how ugly, how dirty and convoluted the issue, you have to look it in the eye.  Now, we realize for some this may a bit more difficult, especially, if it's one of those events or thoughts that send you for a loop requiring psychiatric counseling for many months or years after.  For the most part though, those little fears we have such as "Bugs" and "Gym Shoes" need to be nipped in the bud, unless you want to trip in your flip-flops while wildly running from a mosquito.  Ah yes, the power of a good movie to prompt a deeper state of consciousness or in our case a philosophical rant..lol    

  All side talk aside, "The Hole" is a decent film, as far as horror that you can watch with you little brother or favorite niece without needing to sing Blue's Clues before bedtime.  We recommend, "The Hole",  for the ultra-light sampler of horror films or a bake cookies all night/pre-teen slumber party.   Oh yeah, It's currently on Netflix-Enjoy.

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  Thanks for reading!

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