'The Hole' leaves you feeling a bit empty

Film: The Hole 3D (U/A)
Director: Joe Dante
Cast: Chris Massoglia, Nathan Gamble, Teri Polo, Haley Bennett, Bruce Dern
Rating: **1/2

More Jumanji than Hellraiser, The Hole sees a family consisting of brothers Dane (Massoglia), Lucas (Gamble) and their single mum (Polo), after shifting endlessly from place to place, settling down in the small town of Bensonville.

Now, in the cellar of the family’s otherwise unassuming new dwelling is the titular hole, which happens to be a bottomless repository of mankind's deepest fears, which it, rather arbitrarily, chooses to reflect onto the sorry soul who pees into its recesses.

The boys and next-door neighbour Julie (Bennett), while trying to solve the mystery of the hole, find themselves having to contend with their most personal horrors as the weirdness ensues.

With passable acting and less-than-mindblowing special effects, The Hole provides RL Steinesque thrills that aren’t the mature horror buff’s cup of tea. This tween scare fest plays out like an over-long TV episode of some anthology show specially produced for a young adult channel.

Perhaps if the script had been fleshed out better, the story would have been wholesome without necessarily compromising on its family-friendliness.

Among its higher points, though, there is a definite 1980s feel to the film, which is always welcome, as are Dante's numerous not-so-subtle nods to other horror gems of that era. The film, which isn’t entirely flawed or tiresome, may hold its own on television, but it proves to be average fare for the big screen.