186 - The Hole (2009)

    After moving to a small town, a teenage boy and his younger brother find a strange gated hole in their basement, which doesn't seem to have a bottom.  They build a friendship with the girl next door, as they all experience creepy things - a spooky dead girl wandering around, a marionette clown doll moving around and attacking, and assorted other creepiness.
    I saw this back in 2011, and I finally got the Blu-ray for Christmas.  I've been wanting to show this to Cathy, since it's a horror movie, but it's not scary enough to keep her awake at night or anything like that.
    It plays like an extended Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode, but it respects the audience.  It starts off with some genuinely creepy stuff, and then as the plot takes shape, it gets less scary.  The last act isn't scary as much as is a cathartic finish.
    If I saw this as a kid, it would be one of my favorite horror movies.  The characters are really handled well.  None of them are idiots.  They don't make ridiculous decisions (with a minor exception, that I would expect them to be more scared by some of the things they see).  They aren't needlessly flawed.  The brothers quarrel and pick on each other, but it comes across as a natural thing.
    The picture is excellent on Blu-ray.  I love seeing the outdoor shots.  The colors are just amazing.  The dark shots didn't have the tint that I remembered seeing before.  The one bad thing I noticed was that in one shot, there were some flecks on the lens.  And some of the effects shots are a little off.  But for Joe Dante's style, it seems right.
    There are a few disappointments, and those are two mistakes.  When the electricity goes out, an iPod loses power.  And a water pipe is broken in one scene, and is fine when we see it again.