Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Spoonixel Amateur movie with Big budget

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

torrascotia I was at a Q&A with the director Joe Dante and the topic of this movie came up. Its clear that this film has been missed by many due to its lack of distribution. However its well worth your time if you can track it down. Its basically a teen psychological horror which has themes from a number of 80s horrors like IT, Puppetmaster, The Gate and Paperhouse. It was originally a 3D movie however its still watchable in 2D. Theres a few old faces from previous Dante movies although the rest of cast may be new to you but they all do a great job. I'd recommend this as a family/teen fun horror that wont give the kids nightmares.....unless they have a thing about clowns.

nilen-51573 Kind of normal horror theme. Kids find and accidently released a ancient horror that hunts them. Its ok. The thing I found stupid in this movie was the old man Carl. He had lived at the house with the hatch and had locked it. Then he kinds of leave it like that moves away to adifferent part of the city. He dont really hides the hatch and leaves the keys in a box just next to the hatch. He is then angry at the kids for opening the hatch and blame them for releasing the evil. This part is kind of stupid and feel like a cheap way to get the story to start. This made me lose interest in the rest of the movie when I was seeing it.

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.

Leofwine_draca A highly disappointing children's horror film, especially so given the calibre of cult director Joe Dante. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this is Dante's worst film, at least of the ones I've (usually) had the pleasure of watching so far.The big problem with THE HOLE is the script, written by the same guy who brought us VACANCY and VACANCY 2. It has the same paucity of imagination as either of those movies; I feel that the writer was brought up on the fun-filled adventures of the 1980s and tries to recapture the same spirit here, but despite flashes of inspiration the results never gel.Not that Dante doesn't try; indeed there are occasional glimpses of his old magic at work, but they're few and far between. The first half of the film is the best, a slow exercise in gradual build-up that benefits from a decent performance from the child actor Nathan Gamble. Unfortunately, that same slowness continues into the second half, where the promise of a spectacular denouement never arrives and it all ends in the most lacklustre way imaginable.The horror is limited to old tropes borrowed from the likes of POLTERGEIST and THE RING and there's no imagination to be found anywhere. The CGI effects are pretty poor and although I saw this in 2D it appeared that the 3D wasn't up to much either. Altogether a very poor effort from a usually reliable source.