Gremlins remains one of my favourite films from childhood, and it is thanks to Joe Dante who helmed the films with enough to keep it frightening, yet kid friendly and family oriented at the same time. It's been a long while since I've missed Small Soldiers on the big screen, that he now returns with The Hole, yet dabbling with a similar treatment of making it quite the entertaining romp for both young and old to sit through.

A pity about the 3D version though, as I opted to watch this in 2D, and clearly because of the 3D gimmick, there were a few needless scenes stuck in, like having a kid throw a baseball toward the screen while lying on his back on his bed. On the whole there weren't too many deliberate 3D shots designed for the film, though I thought that the special effects put into it were spiffy enough, especially since there was a good mix of traditional stop motion efforts deliberate done in a cheesy manner, and those of the modern money shots toward the end.

As it's family oriented, this film like the rest of what Dante did thus far, has family being in the centre of all things that trip up in the dark, and we get three stories put into one, by virtue of each character having to deal with their fears come alive. Written by Mark L. Smith (Vacancy),the narrative keeps you guessing exactly what the reason is behind the threats are as faced by each child/teenage lead in the Thompson brothers Dane (Chris Massoglia) and Lucas (Nathan Gamble),and their neighbour Julie (Haley Bennett) when they look down the cursed hole, found in the new home of the Thompsons.

The idea is pretty cool in itself, because what could spook you more than what's truly your greatest fear? However that itself served up a mixed bag of scares, because the scares here are customized to the character's. For instance, Lucas has to deal with something straight out of Child's Play, although this little thingamajig had a small scene as a stinger after the end credits (well, if you have to know, it's only a wink, so you didn't miss much if you failed to stay behind). For Julie, it has to deal with a guilt from the past that manifest itself as something spiritual, and to face one's guilt is something that takes up her story arc.

For Dane's however, it was kept under wraps until the last, which provided for a fitting finale with all the bells and whistles thrown in, dealing with how the magnitude of one's problems when young seem to shrink in size as we grow older, possibly because we may either have outgrown it, or that being older we have a lot more other concerns to deal, in his case, the growing into a surrogate paternal role over the care of his younger brother, in a single parent family.

Still, despite being a horror/thriller, this is still something that will find a broad appeal, being somewhat simple in its stories, but nothing less than effective and of course for those catching it in 3D, yet another film to provide you that fixation with putting on the glasses. I'm not quite sure if a sequel would be made given the way it ended with a plot thread so glaringly hanging out, but we know how Gremlins 2 went.

I do like this sort of film, but The Hole just didn't much for me. I did like the concept, I liked how it started as it showed a lot of promise and I did like some of the photography and scenery. However, The Hole very quickly goes downhill about twenty five minutes or so in. The effects are largely inconsistent, some are decent, but some look very amateurish and distract. When it comes to the scares, some scenes did have atmosphere, but while there were times where I did jump nothing really stood out as memorable let alone scary for me. The script is very clichéd, illogical and weak, the direction is surprisingly poor considering it was the same Joe Dante who lent a hand in the brilliant Gremlins and the story when the film itself meanders becomes predictable and silly. The acting is terrible, and because of how clichéd and unlikeable they were I just couldn't connect to the characters. Overall, liked the premise but it peters out quickly sadly. 3/10 Bethany Cox

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.