It's about a single mom and her two boys who move to the small town of Bensonville, Oregon from Brooklyn. Teenager Dane (Chris Massoglia) is none to happy about the move, since the family has been moving time and time again for undisclosed reasons. Plus, Bensonville sucks compared to NYC - the only perk for Dane is he can stare out the window at his gorgeous new neighbor Julie (Hayley Bennett). One day, while monkeying around in the basement, Dane and his younger brother Lucas (Nathan Gamble) discover a super-padlocked door on the floor - when they open it, they discover what seems to be a bottomless hole. They are understandably curious, and get Julie's help to try and figure out exactly what is going on. The Netflix synopsis says the hole "leads to excruciating pain and misery." That might be overselling it a bit. But regardless, dangerous supernatural shenanigans start happening to all three of them, so they must fight back. But in the great tradition of teenage/youth genre films, they never tell any adults in authority about what is happening.
There are two things I noticed about The Hole early on. (1) It's pretty damned funny at first - I laughed quite a bit at young Lucas's penchant for throwing things at his brother's head. And (2) it's a very well-directed film. There are a couple of shots early on when we are introduced to the new neighborhood where the camera just zips along from high above, eventually zooming in on the new house and family - it feels very cinematic, and in a way, charming. Generally, I feel like the big sweeping crane shots have sort of gone out of style - or are at least expendable in today's motion picture landscape. (Or all rendered in a computer.) But here, it felt sort of nostalgic and helped get me on board right away.
And that's sort of indicative of the movie as a whole. It kind of seemed to me like a heartfelt transplant from the 80s/early 90s. You get some good laughs early on, but also some (kind of heavy-handed) dramatic elements. But it all works, because The Hole just feels refreshingly uncynical. It's not overly calculated or obviously created for mass appeal - its just a well done ghost story/mystery, because ghost stories/mysteries are fun and cool. Sometimes that's enough, you know?
Like I said, the horror elements of the film feel somewhat toned-down. There is some stuff in there that is pretty well done and creepy, but there is never really any sense of danger. I think this is the sort of film that youngsters could probably watch... there are probably parts that would terrify an eight year old, but then if they watched it as a teenager they'd be all "that's what I was afraid of?" The stuff that happens in the "real world" works pretty well. (KIND OF SPOILER: the third act sort of gets out of the "real world" and is less successful - there is an over-dependance on CGI here and unfortunately things end on a weaker note). The evil can manifest itself in a number of ways, so you get a variety of ghosts/spirits/etc that are all treated differently in a cinematic sense. They all have a different skill set to use when it comes to being scary.
The weakest part of the movie was probably the acting. Gamble is okay as the youngest Lucas, but it's always tough when such a young child has a leading role - they just never seem realistic, you know? But none of the three leads fare all that well. I think Bennett fairs the best as Julie, but they all have times where they just don't really seem to connect with the character (or each other), and things just seem a little wooden as a result. But, you know who is a good actor? Julie's dog!
Name: Charlie
Breed: Pomeranian
Function: To be super cute. Charlie barks at the hole to let you know it's evil. And I guess to provide a little tension. You can be pretty confident that the kids aren't going to die. But the little dog mucking around near the hole?
Fate: He makes it. Charlie is not very prominently featured in the film after showing up a couple of time early on. He's more or less just forgotten about.
Overall, The Hole is an enjoyable, well made film. It's definitely the type of movie that I think just about anyone could watch - there's enough horror stuff in there to please the genres fans, but it never feels overbearing. I mean, it's certainly a horror film first, but it's funny and light hearted at times and there's a little drama in there as well. All in all, it's good stuff.
I would recommend this film.
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