Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
This one’s already out on video overseas, right? But I hear they’re still test-screening it here in the States and trying to figure out what to do with it. Check this out...
hello harry,
i just got back from an advance screening of 'the hole' starring thora birch. i went in pretty skeptical. the flyer described it as a horror/suspense/thriller. being that no movie with all three elements has been done successfully in ages, at least in the states, my doubts were justified.
i'll try keeping this as spoiler-free as possible. horror, none. thrills, lacking. suspense, just enough to keep me awake. the twists and turns of the plot are pretty predictable. i've never agreed on the semi-narrative with a constant shift between time and/or realities. i believe the best exception would be 'the princess bride.'
here's the run-down. a group of students at an english boarding school try to find some time among themselves while the rest of the school attends a geology trip to wales. what better way to do it then to get the local geek to hack the school records and provide them a way off the trip while they spend three days in an old bomb shelter. madness, anger, lust and murder follow suit.
from the opening scene, there's an obvious sense of something terrible having happened recently. when we first get information of the events, there is obviously a lot of missing info. and of course the truth is the where the blood is or, for our viewing pleasure, the plot.
aside from the occasion grain and lack of volume control. the film seemed complete. the soundtrack was surprisingly adept. judging the screening crowd, you'd expect a track along the lines of 'not another teen movie.' but it, in fact, created the right mood for most of the setting.
the actors weren't quite as adept as the music though. they lacked character and bordered on cliché. while thora showed a side that would make any man rise, as well as shudder, there lacked a sense of realism to her role. there wasn't much support for her, either. unfortunately, she was stuck with a blonde, slutty friend, again. while this is not 'american beauty' or 'ghost world' you can almost sense daniel clowes and kevin spacey hurl simultaneously. the gratuitous window to the truth, namely the therapist and her sessions, were probably the laziest of elements in the film.
oh well. it wasn't terrible and could certainly do well commercially with a few tweaks. it's definitely not 'cabin fever' or any of those ridiculous mtv-generation suspense flicks. it doesn't cater to the nostalgia thrills of 'freddy vs jason,' but is does provide you with a good reason to take a significant other, let’s just hope they don’t get any crazy ideas.
'til whenever, call me Dr. Rob M. Blind
Huh. Doesn’t seem like it caused much of a stir overseas, either. This was a 2001 movie. Is Dimension ever going to actually put it out? And once they’ve waited this long, don’t they know the damage they’ve already done to their own films? I wish sometimes that Miramax just didn’t have the money to buy as many films as they do. They’re overfunded by their parent company, and it allows them to do this over and over and over. Buy things up and never do anything with them. It’s damn near criminal for these filmmakers, and even if the film isn’t some brilliant redefinition of the horror genre, it would be nice to be able to make my own mind up instead of having some genre-hating goof at Dimension just sit on one more film.
"Moriarty" out.
