The first movie on the list was Joe Dante's The Hole, which I've reviewed on my blog before. I'm rather surprised that it is only now getting a theatrical release in the US, as it was released on DVD/Blu-ray in Europe back in January 2011. Not going to waste a lot of time on this review, since you can find my earlier thoughts on it as well.
That said, I think this movie works better on the second viewing. Chris Massoglia's Dane doesn't come off quite as wooden as he did before, and the relationship between him and his brother is actually quite sweet. The love between the brothers isn't always spelled out in the movie, but you can feel it constantly throughout the movie.
Also I'm reminded at how scary this movie actually is. I'm sure I'm not the only one going "That fucking clown..." after the movie. According to my wife, this is one of the creepiest movies she's seen. And there's a lot of creepy things in the movie, but the movie doesn't go over the top with the scares and there's a very few unearned jump scares. I'm sure that how Joe Dante managed to get under my skin with Gremlins when I was a kid, this movie will get under the skin of a whole new generation.
Only thing that doesn't really work for me is the ending. As this movie is geared more for a kid-friendly audience (friendly might not be the right word), there's the whole "facing your fears" lesson to teach the kid. This is all fine and dandy, but I was rather disappointed in the way Dane finally faces his fear.
In the end, I definitely recommend this movie to horror fans, young and old, and I hope this does well in the box office in the US. It's been too long since we got a Joe Dante movie and call me crazy, I would want to see another movie from him sooner rather than later. My (new) rating for The Hole: 8/10
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