There's a handful of directors who stand as tall as Joe Dante when it comes to movies a kid/teen growing in the 80s grew up with. Joe Dante is a legend, directing such classics as The Gremlins, Explorers, Innerspace, The 'burbs and co-directing Twilight Zone the Movie and Amazon Women on the Moon. Such nostalgia, but like many of his contemporaries, he didn't really make anything noteworthy after those.
Needless to say I was still looking forward to seeing The Hole, which in paper looked like he was kind of returning to his forte - sort of family horror comedy. And that's exactly what it was! I'm already out of the target group, but still I really enjoyed the movie. It's finally a Joe Dante movie that we've been waiting for a long time.
The story is great, a mystery Hole in the floor. Quite a few clichéd horror moments, but that's totally fine, clichés are OK when you do it tongue in cheek and not too seriously. Still I must say I was a bit surprised how tense it got here and there. Spooky stuff.
One of the only real gripes with this movie is the fact that it looks a bit low budget (I'm not sure if 10 mil qualifies as a low budget, it's an awful lot of money). It's got a bit of a TV movie feel. No big stars, good looking but rather small scale sets. Still old Dante fans will love a few cameos and familiar faces.
Other gripe with the movie is that I don't find Chris Massoglias characters very likable. I didn't like him in Cirque du Freak and neither in this movie. The kid brother was so much better actor creating a much more likable character.
Having also seen John Carpenters return movie "The Ward", I'd have to say Dante won this round. I hope these two 80s superstars will still return to form with a real big budget movie showing the younger directors what they're really made of.
